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THE PROLETARIAN REVOLT. 



A HISTORY 



OF 



The Paris Commune 

OF 1871. 



EY 



G. B. BENHAM. , : . 

MAf t 8 im 

"War is immora), yet we fight."— ^k^iif-^'igault. _ -.^rv^. ' 



SAN FRANCISCO: » 

INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. '> '^ 




\^^— f^* 



>I28 



Entered according to Act of Congi-ess, in the year 1898, by 

G. B. Beniiam, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Coiia-ress, at Washington. 



THE LIBRARY i 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



INTRODUCTION. 



Most of the historians of the Commune have 
said very little concerning the situation of affairs 
which gave birth to this extraordinary uprising. 
It is true that some of them have recognized its 
essentially proletarian character, but few have 
connected the Commune with the long series of 
events which led up to it. These authors have 
seen in the Paris revolution merely an outbreak 
of the turbulent members of society, discontented 
without reason and engaged in hopeless rebellion 
against the position in life to which ignorance and 
incapacity had consigned them. Many writers 
upon this subject, unable to divest themselves of 
their prejudices, and striving rather to give a 
popular than a just description of this revolt, 
have declared the aspirations of the French pro- 
letariat to have been compounded of folly and 
iniquity, leading, on this occasion, to an attempt to 
destroy the foundations of society and inaugurate 
a reign of lawlessness and disorder. Contentedly 
believing all things old to be good and all usages 
established to be necessary, these writers have 
taken but little notice of the developments in in- 
dustrial and political economy, or of the increasing 
intelligence of the workers and their consequent 
realization of their changed condition. 

It would be necessary to trace the history of 
the evolution of capitalist production, and to 
review the political and literary progress of 
modern civilization, to recount in detail all the 



nil INTRODUCTION. 



causes which led to this great uprising. It , 
will be sufficient here to indicate the principal 
historical events which have logical connection 
with the Commune. 

The presence of that spirit of inquiry and of 
secular progress, which, during the preceding four 
centuries had developed civilization, made possible 
the American and French revolutions. In them 
was signalized the advance of political democracy 
and the decline of absolutism, monarchical and 
religious. That surrounding economic conditions 
continually fostered discontent, accelerated the in- 
tellectual advance and raised the Democratic aspira- 
tions of the proletariat, is evidenced in the doc- 
trines promulgated advocating a more equitable 
distribution of natural resources and industrial 
products, by a political rearrangement of society. 
The uncertainties caused by the swift changes 
in their industrial condition, together with the 
dissipation of the religious credulity of the 
past, produced among the workers in all civ- 
ilized nations such independent thought and far- 
reaching desires as to dismay the foremost in the 
ranks of those striving for a mere political democ- 
racy. The conquest of science and invention 
reacted upon the moral and intellectual growth of 
the time. Not content with the surrender of divine 
prerogatives of domination by kings and ecclesias- 
tics, this new movement demanded the abrogation 
of the political supremacy which has its basis in 
the private ownership and control of the social 
powers of production. 

During the revolutions of 1848, which shook 
nearly every throne in Europe, almost the first indi- 
cations of distinct working-class political activity 
are to be recognized. In every quarter of Europe 



INTRODUCTION. 



the Red Spectre of Communism stalked before the 
astonished eyes of the middle-class, who had in- 
tended to secure by these revolts which they had 
initiated, merely constitutional government, free- 
dom of the press, of speech and the supremacy of 
commercial interests. Frightened by this unex- 
pected apparition, the bourgeoisie quickly made 
terms with the defenders of monarchical and aris- 
tocratic privileges, sacrificing many of their re- 
forms in the interests of " public order." 

While the authorities were engaged in sup- 
pressing these uprisings, working-class representa- 
tives from various countries met at London and 
issued the Manifesto of the Communist Party. The 
ideas enunciated by this programme spread among 
the workers in every civilized land, and the influ- 
ence of the manifesto was soon to be traced in all 
the working-class agitation of the time.* Vigorous 
as were the efforts of governments and their com- 
mercial and clerical allies to prevent speakers and 
writers from spreading the new doctrines, it was 
only in the suppression of speech that the authori- 
ties were measurably successful. But the progress 
of ideas keeps pace with social development. 
Publications poured from secret presses and were 
widely circulated among the "lower orders of 
society." 

In 1864, the International Workingmen's 
Association was founded. The purpose of the or- 
ganization, as stated by its founders, was to " weld 
into one body the whole militant proletariat of 
Europe and America ." This Association flourished. 

* Previous to 1SS8, the text had been reprinted many times in Switzer- 
land, England, America and France. Two editions in Russian were printed 
in Geneva, one by Bakounine [1864], and one by Vera Zasulitch [1882]. 
It has been published in Danish and Spanish several times and once in 
Armenian. Its circulation has been enormous. 



VI INTRODUCTION. 



It was the most prominent and formidable 
workingmen's society of its day, and was the first 
recognition of the complete identity of the workers' 
interests in all civilized countries.* In France it 
grew rapidly, and the most intelligent and ad- 
vanced of the proletariat became its members. 

The most superficial acquaintance with the 
progress of industrial development, and the conse- 
quent revolution in the conditions of existence of 
vast masses in society, should convince anyone 
that an organized attempt to establish a social 
democratic autonomy was sure, sooner or later, 
somewhere, to be made; the peculiar situation of 

♦Permanent statutes adopted at its first meeting, London, 1864, and con- 
firmed at its Geneva congress in 1866 : 

" In consideration that the emancipation of the laboring classes must 
be accomplished by the laboring classes, that the battle for the emancipation 
of the laboring classes does not signify a battle for class privileges and 
monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of class rule; 

" That the economic dependence of the laboring man upon the monop- 
olist of the implements of work, the sources of life, forms the basis of every 
kind of servitude, of social misery, of spiritual degradation, and political 
dependence; 

♦' That, therefore, the economic emancipation of the laboring classes 
is the great end to which every political movement must be subordinated as 
a simple auxiliary; 

" That all exertions which, up to this time, have been directed towards 
the attainment of this end, have failed on account of the want of solidarity 
between the varions branches of labor in every land, and by reason of the 
absence of a brotherly bond of unity between the laboring classes of different 
countries; 

" That the emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national, but 
a social, problem, which embraces all countries in which modern society 
exists, and whose solution depends upon the practical and theoretical co- 
operation of the most advanced lands; » 

' ' That the present awakening of the laboring classes in the industrial 
lands of Europe gives occasion for new hope, but at the same time contains 
a solemn warning not to fall back into old errors, and demands an immediate 
union of the movements not yet united; 

•' , in consideration of all these circumstances, the first Inter- 
national Labor Congress declares that the International Workingmen's Asso- 
ciation, and all societies and individuals belonging to it, recognize truth, 
right, and morality as the basis of their conduct towards one another and 
their fellow-men, without respect to color, creed, or nationality. This con- 
gress regards it as the duty of man to demand the rights of a man and citizen, 
not only for himself, but for every one who does his duty. No rights with- 
out duties; no duties without rights." 



INTRODUCTION. Vll 



Paris and of France in 1 871, seemed to the workers 
to supply the necessary conditions for such an 
attempt. The traditions which the French people 
had inherited from the great revolution of 1789, 
no doubt influenced many of the partisans of the 
Commune. The belief, too, that there was a scheme 
on foot in the Assembly to restore the Orleanists, 
prompted many of the advanced Republicans to 
join in the movement. But the tens of thousands 
of National Guards, made up exclusively of work- 
ingmen, under the control of an elected body com- 
posed almost entirely of workingmen, stamp the 
uprising with an indubitably proletarian character. 
Its significance can hardly be overestimated. It 
was a skirmish of the forces which will meet in 
greater actions on broader fields. Its history is 
that of the greatest revolt of "free " workers the 
world has ever seen. 

In consideration of the almost world-wide 
unrest among the wage- working class, and the tre- 
mendous growth of social democratic opinion, it 
is believed that a just survey of the incidents of 
such a movement and an attempt to portray its 
significance will be acceptable to all inclined to in- 
vesigate the social problems of the age. 

This volume is therefore submitted to the 
public with the consciousness that the facts ascer- 
tainable have been fairly presented, and it is 
hoped in a manner which will, to some extent, 
correct the many popular misconceptions regarding 
the acts, the interests and the personnel of the 
Commune. 

G. B. B^NHAM. 

San Francisco, January, 1898. 



rr 




J-AeFi^u/vs dc^u^ie ^/lo ^rr^n^issemcn^s i^(6.- irAie/i, P^^ris is e^u/uiUx^ . 



I. 

France and The Second Empire. 



The France that the Revolution of 1789-96 
produced was one in which " neither the upper nor 
lower crust could long endure." Feudalism had 
held a longer sway there than in England, and the 
constitution which was a heritage from the days of 
Danton could not form a lasting basis of govern- 
mental action. The progress to the revolution of 
1830 developed the working class as a conscious 
social factor, and here first appeared, in somewhat 
vague form, the proletarian movement for what 
is now known as Socialism. This Revolution of 
1830 was a middle-class affair, but so determined 
were the proletarians and so desperately did they 
defend the barricades that they distinguished them- 
selves from the bourgeoisie whose initiative they had 
followed. This was repeated on a larger scale in 
1848, and the workingmen, to further differentiate 
themselves, took up the red flag as their banner, an 
act which gained for them the name of Red Republi- 
cans.* One of the results of the displacement of 
Royalty in 1 848 was the elevation of Louis Napoleon 
Bonaparte to the presidency of the newly consti- 
tuted French Republic. He was elected by an im- 
mense popular majority. The circumstances of 
'coup d'etat," by which he became Emperor^ are 
too well known to be related here. 

*Before the middle of June, 1848, the assembly issued a decree dissolving 
the national workshops. Forty thousand men took to the barricades to the 



2 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

The International Workingmen's Association 
became a prominent factor in politics during 
the Second Empire. The various political par- 
ties, from Orleanists to Communists, for several 
years preceding 1870, viewed with much the 
same complacency the too evident decadence of 
the Empire. All classes in society were rest- 
less. The Orleanists hoped for a restoration to 
power. The w^orkingmen had received little and 
had nothing to hope for in a continuation of the 
Napoleonic regime. Various events of more or 
less importance had made the Emperor unpopular; 
his warlike ventures had not raised the military 
prestige of France; his cousin, Pierre Bonaparte, 
was simply fined ^5000 for the murder of citizen 
Victor Noir. Gigantic schemes of fraudulent 
speculation, countenanced and fostered by those 
in high places, absorbed the earnings and savings 
of the people and involved thousands in ruin. 
Judicial tribunals were debauched and the public 
officials rioted in corruption and extravagance. f 

It became necessary to divert the public mind 
from the rottenness of the government. In order 
to do this, and with the hope of re-establishing 
confidence in the Empire, a war with Germany 
was resolved upon. A pretext was found in the 
claim of a Prussian prince to the succession of the 

cry of " bread or death." Eight thousand were killed in the fight, double 
that number were taken prisoners, three thousand of whom were afterwards 
shot in cold blood. * * * * *.* * * 

The Patnae, an organ of the government, spoke in these terms: — "We 
are surrounded by cannibals. If they remain in their lair they must be ex- 
tinguished; if they come out they must be cut to pieces.'" M. Montelembert, 
the great Ultramontanest, declared in the assembly, that, " It is necessary to 
undertake against socialism a Roman expedition at home. .... There 
only remains for us war— war carried on energetically and by every means." 
M. Thiers declared the constitution giving manhood suffrage *' a vile bit of 
rag. " During 1850, the constitution was revised, manhood suffrage destroyed, 
and over four millions of workmen disfranchised.— /SftetcWey. 

fThiers, renewing his tortuous cunning and servile skillfulness, sought 
to profit by all the Imperial mistakes.— Locfttoood 



FRANCE) AND TH^ S]$COND EMPIRE. 3 

throne of Spain. The national spirit was 
aroused, and the dissatisfied people became eager 
for hostilities. France sent into the field soldiers 
in abundance, but inefficiently disciplined, and 
officered by men whose tactics are a mystery, and 
whose operations were almost wholly unsuccessful, 
The French armies won but one important battle ; 
the Germans added victory to victory on French 
soil until Sedan fell. Another series of victories 
brought them to the gates of Paris. The French 
troops had scarcely delayed their march. 

Napoleon III aspired to imitate the first Em- 
peror, but the Second Empire will only be con- 
templated in pity for its victim, the French 
nation.* 

As the International Workingmen's Associa- 
tion was a prominent element in the Commune, 
it may be well hereto record its position regarding 
the war between Germany and France. 

In the Reveil of ]uly 12th, 1870, was published 
a manifesto "to the Workmen of all Nations," 
from which we extract the following few 
passages: — 

"Once more," says this document, "on the 
pretext of European equilibrium, of national 
honour, the peace of the world is menaced by 
political ambitions. French, German, Spanish 
workmen ! let our voices unite in one cry of 
reprobation against war ! . . . . War 
for a question of preponderance or a dynasty, 
can, in the eyes of workmen, be nothing but 
a criminal absurdity. In answer to the 

war-like proclamations of those who exempt 
themselves from the blood-tax, and find in public 

*The rascality of ministers, the unskillfiilness and tTeason of generals, 
the shame of Sedan and Metz, the tortures of the siepro of P*ri8, and the 
disgTaceful capitulation which followed the infamies of Borucaux and Ver- 
sailles made up the closing scenes of the Second Empire.— Lockwood. 



4 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

misfortunes a source of fresh speculations, we 
protest, we who want peace, labor, and liberty ! . 
Brothers of Germany ! Our division would only 
result in the complete triumph of despotism on 
both sides of the Rhine. . . . Workmen of all 
countries ! Whatever may for the present be- 
come of our common efforts, we, the members of 
the International Workingmen's Association, who 
know of no frontiers, we send you, as a pledge of 
indissoluble solidarity, the good wishes and salu- 
tations of the workmen of France." 

This manifesto of the Paris section was fol- 
lowed by numerous similar French addresses, of 
which we can here only quote the declaration of 
Neuilly-sur-Seine, published in the Marseillaise of 
July 22nd: — " The war, is it just ? No ! The war, 
is it national? No! It is merely Dynastic. In 
the name of humanity, of democracy, and the true 
interests of F'rance, we adhere completely and 
energetically to the protestation of the Inter- 
national against the war." 

The German workmen of many cities replied 
in like sentiments. 

A mass meeting of workmen, held at Bruns- 
wick on July 1 6th, expressed its full concurrence 
with the Paris manifesto, spurned the idea of 
national antagonism to France, and wound up its 
resolutions with these words: — "We are enemies 
of all wars, but above all of dynastic wars. . . 
With deep sorrow and grief we are forced to 
undergo a defensive war as an unavoidable evil; 
but we call, at the same time upon the whole 
German working-class to render the recurrence of 
such an immense social misfortune impossible by 
vindicating for the peoples themselves the power 



FRANCE AND THE SECOND EMPIRE. 5 

to decide on peace and war, and making them 
masters of their own destinies." 

At Chemnitz, a meeting of delegates, repre- 
senting 50,000 Saxon workmen, adopted unani- 
mously a resolution to this effect: — " In the name 
of the German Democracy, and especially of the 
workmen forming the Democratic Socialist Party, 
we declare the present war to be exclusively 

dynastic We are happy to grasp the 

fraternal hand stretched out to us by the workmen 
of France. . . . Mindful of the watchword of 
the International Workingmen's Associations: 
Proletarians of all countries unite^ we shall never 
forget that the workmen of all countries are our 
friends and the dCvSpots of all countries our enemies.'' 
The Berlin branch of the International 
also replied to the Paris manifesto: — ** We," they 
say, **join with heart and hand your protestation. 
. . . Solemnly we promise that neither the 
sound of the trumpet, nor the roar of the cannon, 
neither victory nor defeat, shall divert us from our 
common work for the union of the children of toil 
of all countries." 



THE PARIS COMMUNB. 
II. 

Paris — September 20 to March 1 



Paris, in 1870, was a city of almost 2,000,000 in- 
habitants, and, as to-day, the gayest and most 
fashionable capital in the world.* The city is built 
on both sides of the river Seine, whose islands 
formed the nucleus of the metropolis. It is 
elliptical in shape, environed by numerous villages 
and by thickly-settled country. The city is sur- 
rounded by a fortified wall, 21 miles in internal 
circumference, encircling an area of 30 square 
miles. Detached forts, 16 in number, guarded 
the approach to the line of fortifications. Fort 
Valerien, the largest and most advantageously situ- 
ated, being on the west of the ellipse formed by 
Forts Issy, Vanves, Montrouge, Bic^tre and Ivry, 
these five lying to the south of the city. 

The fall of Sedan on September ist was not 
made known to the Parisians until September 3. 
The authorities were justly condemned for hold- 
ing back the news, and their pusillanimity aroused 
the citizens, who, on September 4.th, ousted the 
corpse of Imperialism, and there was at the Hotel 
de Ville immediately instituted that incarnation of 
plans and inaction, the self-constituted Government 

*The ancient Lutetia Parisorum; historically noticed by Csesar in "Com, 
mentaries" fifty years' B. C ; originally the chief settlement of the Parisii. 
a Gallic tribe conquered by the Romans. Population in 1869, 1,875.000 
Paris has 20 arrondissements, each having a Mayor and two councillors. 
The Prefect of the Seine, appointed by the government, is the chief city - 
official; sometimes referred to as Central Mayor or Mayor of Pafto. 



SBPTEMBEIR 20 TO MARCH I. 7 

of the National Defence. The members of the 
deposed house of deputies, elected under Napoleon 
III, seized the reins of power, and at once 
took on themselves all functions of government. 
General Trochu, commandant of Paris, refused to 
have anything to do with the new government un- 
less he was made its head. Fearing his influence 
with the military, he was made Governor of Paris 
and Commander-in-Chief of the armies. M. Tht rs 
refused to be placed in any position in this govern- 
ment, which was dependent on the caprice of an ex- 
cited populace. He had sometime before distin- 
guished himself by referring to the people as " vile 
multitude,"* Jules Favre, an orator of advanced 
years, was made Minister of Foreign Affairs. Leon 
Gambetta became Minister of the Interior. 
Etienne Arago was appointed Central Mayor, and 
made a speech in which it was apparent that he 
considered the Commune established.** 

"The first step taken by the new government 
was to send Thiers on a roving tour to all 
the Courts of Europe there to beg mediation 
by offering the barter of the Republic for a 
king."t An order was issued for the release of all 
political prisoners, which set at liberty Henri 

*Thiers, holding,' himself in reserve to participate in the intrigues, which 
he saw a vast field iov.—Lochwood. 

**Many who use the word commaine glibly have a very imperfect under- 
standing of its significance, and little imagine that it is as harmless and inno- 
cent a word as township, and means pretty much the same thing. The 
commune, with an emphasis on the article, means simply Paris, or, in a 
secondary sense, the administrative officers collectively governing Paris. 
France is divided into departments and communes, the same as our states 
are divided into counties and townships, and Paris by itself forms one of 
these communes. The insurrection in Paris, of March 18, 1871, was one in 
favor of extreme local self-government The idea was to make each com- 
munf) at least as independent as one of the states of the United States, and 
to unite tSX the communes into a confederation with limited powers. The 
movement in favor of the autonomy of Paris is an old one, and has been 
supported by many able and respectable Frenchmen. One in favor of the 
movement is, however, properly called a communalist, and not a communist, 
and the movement itself is communalism — not communism. — Richard T. Ely. 

tAddrasB of Int. W. A. 



8 THS PARIS COMMUNE. 

Rochefort, Gustave Flourens, Cluseret, Deles- 
cluze, Grousset, Vermorel and Eudes; also Megy 
and the others concerned in the bomb plot * 

Raoul Rigault, a young law student of revolu- 
tionary tendencies, established himself as head 
of the police department, where he continued for 
sometime, the government not daring to depose 
him, for fear of antagonizing the radicals. More 
puerile conduct, in all respects is difficult to imagine 
than that of this singularly established government. 

Public meetings were addressed by Socialists 
and members of the International in all districts of 
the city. A demand was made on the government 
for an election. A Committee Central was 
chosen from the arrondissements; the method 
of choice was as follows: in each of the 20 
arrondissements a meeting was held; a Com- 
mittee of Vigilance was elected by acclamation, 
and from this body four were selected from 
each arrondissement, making a Committee Central 
composed of 80 members, which at once made 
its headquarters at the headquarters of the Inter- 
national. 

Paris had undergone a dozen seiges, was now 
well provisioned, and, with the constant ad- 
dition of detachments driven in by the Germans, 
in condition to support a long and vigorous 
defence. The Parisians were vexed and mortified 
by the misfortunes of the French arms. In the 
belief that the Germans could not sustain the 
attacks from without and the arduous labors of so 

*Megy had been sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for killing an officer 
who had unlawfully attempted to arrest him for participating in what was 
known as the " Complot of Bombs," a plot to overthrow bj' force the 
Napoleonic Government In this affair there was also convicted and 
sentenced to shorter terms of imprisonment; Ferre. law student, Cournet, 
journalist and Moilen, physician Protot, lawyer, also accused, was by 
influence released, and defended the others when they were on trial for 
taking part in the plot. 



SKPTKMBER 20 TO MARCH I. 9 

great an offensive undertaking, upon the subsis- 
ance that could be brought to or acquired in a hos- 
tile country, the inhabitants of the capital believed 
their situation secure. There were about 500,000 
men under arms in the city. 

On September 20th, the siege began. It is now 
conceded that the fall of the city was acknowledged 
to be but a matter of time by General Trochu.* 
lycon Gambetta was sent out of the city in a bal- 
loon, to rouse the country to the support of Paris, 
and his efforts were not unsuccessful. Trochu had 
"plans" which were not operative. The troops 
sent against the Germans from the outside were 
not supported by the city's defenders. The popu- 
lace was incensed at the tardy tactics and 
timorous endeavors of the Government of the 
National Defence. The radicals wanted a Com- 
mune; the bourgeoisie were content with any form 
of control which would make a resistance adequate 
to the armament and ability of the city. The de- 
fence was understood to be a farce, and so ex- 
pressed in the correspondence of those high in 
official position in the government. Bismarck 
afterward said of Trochu: '* If he was a German 
general, I should have him shot." 

*Four months after the siege began, Trochu, in the presence of his col- 
leagues, addressed the assembled Mayors of Paris. He said "The first ques- 
tion put to me by my colleagues on the very evening of September 4th 
was this: Paris, can it, with anj' chance of success stand a siege by the 
Prussian army ? I did not hesitate to answer in the negative. Some of my 
colleagues here present will warrant the truth of my words and the persist- 
ance of my opinion. * * * i told them the attempt of Paris 
to hold out would be a folly. * an heroic folly." 

In a letter to Gambetta, M. Favre avows that what they were "defend- 
ing" against w not the Prussian soldiers, but the workingmen of Paris. 
During ihe whole continuance of the siege the Bonapartist * ♦ 

whom Trochu had wisely intrusted with the command of the Paris army, 
exchanged, in their intimate correspondence, jokes at the well-undei'stood 
mockery of defence (see, for instance, the correspondence of Alphonse Simon 
Guiod, supreme commander of the artillery of the Army of Defence of Paris 
and Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, to Suzanne, general of division of 
artillery, a correspondence published by the Journal Offi.ciel of the 
Commune.) 



lO TH:^ PARIS CQMMUNK. 

Mixed factions of workers and bourgeoisie 
nearly obtained control of the city October 31st. 
Flourens, Delescluze, and Blanqui were the 
leaders of the movement. Some members of the 
government were taken prisoners; but many of 
the bourgeois battal ions of the Guard supported 
the government, and, not desiring an internal 
war in the beseiged city, the insurrectionists re- 
leased their prisoners, and retired, under the ex- 
press agreement that no action was to be taken 
against any of the participants in the uprising. 
By a plebiscite November 3d the government was 
retained in power; feeling secure, it imme- 
diately issued warrants for the apprehension 
of the leaders in the affair of October 31st, 
although it had been pledged to take no action 
against any concerned. This brought the condem- 
nation of all fair-minded people upon the adminis- 
tration. Arago, the Mayor, at once resigned, 
and Jules Ferry, a lawyer, was appointed to suc- 
ceed him. 

On January 6th, red placards were posted in 
the city condemning the government and demand- 
ing the election of a Commune. These were 
signed by the representatives of the arrondisse- 
ments, among the signatures were between thirty 
and forty names of those afterward active in the 
work of the Commune. January 19th, in response 
to the demands for the government to ''do some- 
thing," a sortie of 85,000 troops was made, which 
seemed likely to be successful in the morning, but 
was mismanaged and failed in the afternoon. A 
council of the governmental and city officials 
was held on January 20th, and declared further resis- 
tance useless; Trochu was displaced and General 
Vinoy put in command, but tlie essential character 
of the "defence" remained the same. 



SKPTE^MBER 20 to march I. II 

On January 22d, there wa an uprising, sup- 
ported by a large force of the Guards. The seat of 
government, the Hotel de Ville, was defended by 
the Mobiles. The latter opened fire, it is said on 
the order of Gustave Chaudey, one of the Mayor's 
deputies; the Guards returned the fire; in all 30 
were killed and many wounded; the authorities 
took some prisoners and insurgents were repulsed. 

An order was written on January 27th, by 
Brunei, colonel of regiment in the Guards and 
Piazza, commandant of batta .lion, for an assembling 
of the National Guard, the overthrow of the com- 
manders of the forts and their occupation by 
the Guards, who were to hold them at all hazards 
against the Germans. To deliver the forts seemed 
to the Parisians the delivering of the city, to which 
they were unalterably opposed. But few Guards 
were at the rendezvous; the Prefect of Police ob- 
tained possession of the order, and Piazza and 
Brunei were imprisoned to await a military court 
trial. 

The German flag was hoisted on the forts on 
January 29th . An armistice was agreed upon and an 
election to be held February 8th. What was termed 
an "armistice" was in reality the surrender of Paris. 
The object was specifically stated to be '' to permit 
the Government of the National Defence of France 
to convoke an assembly, freely elected, which will 
pronounce on the question whether war shall be 
-continued, or what terms of peace shall be made."* 

The terms were mortifyingly humiliating to 
the Parisians. The city was virtually starved into 
the acceptance of them. Dogs, cats and rats were 
used as food and had high market prices. Jules 
Favre, in his negotiation with Bismarck, stipulated 

♦Harper's Magazine, March, 1871. 



12 THK PARIS COMMUNK. 

for the retention of their arms by the National 
Guards, who were to be '' charged with the preser- 
vation of the peace of Paris."* 

That the National Guards were allowed to re- 
tain their arms was not to preserve order in Paris, 
but because the government did not dare attempt 
the disarmament. There was a sullen dis- 
approval of the terms of the armistice 
throughout the entire country, and in Paris in 
particular. The Guard, it was safe to believe, 
would resist, ostensibly from patriotic motives, the 
disarmament. As a matter of fact, the Socialists, 
Communists, Internationals, and ultra- Republic an 
leaders had the National Guard's ear, and this, with 
the other circumstances surrounding their proba- 
ble condition after disbandment, made the Guards 
an uncertain factor in the government's calcula- 
tions. The National Guard was almost entirely 
made up of workingmen; they saw Orleanists, Im- 
perialists and Clericals, all of whom they recog- 
nized as enemies, conniving at the terms of surren- 
der. Arrears of rent had accumulated against the 
Guardsmen while they served the state at about 
30 cents a day. Building and other industries were 
almost entirely suspended. This condition pre- 
cluded the possibility of a return to labor by mem- 
bers of the Guard should it be disbanded. They 
were incensed at the suggestion of disarmament. 

Gambetta protested against the armistice; sent 
out a proclamation on his own responsibility, clam- 
oring for a continuation of war, and almost over- 
turned the arrangements. But the government an- 
nulled his proclamation, although there was a delay 
of twenty-four hours in revictualling the city. The 

*"Then was committeii the crowning error of leaving armed a National 
Guard, a larpe portion of which was the refuse of France and the scum of 
different European countries."— Fetridge. 



SEPTKMBER 20 TO MARCH I. 13 

conduct of his colleagues so exasperated Gambetta 
that he resigned as Minister of the Interior.* It 
is stated that more than 125,000 persons left Paris 
between January 29th and the day of election. 

An officer of the National Guard, soon after 
the armistice began, passed the French lines and 
fired his pistol at a Prussian sentinel. The officer 
was arrested and imprisoned by the Germans. 
Two Germans were arrested in Paris by the Guard, 
and sentenced to death by the Central Committee. 
The Prussian military authorities demanded the 
release of the condemned men. The Guard 
finally gave up the two men on agreement that 
their officer should be released. To this the 
French authorities agreed, but the Germans held 
that the officer should be tried by court martial 
and shot if found guilty. Thiers was bitterly de- 
nounced by the exasperated Guards, who claimed 
they had been tricked by the government. 

The free elections of this Assembly were 
held upon a notice of only eight days, which 
barely reached some of the provinces on the eve of 
election. Thiers made an electioneering tour and 
was chosen as deputy in twenty-six districts. 

Paris elected many radicals. — Delescluze, 
Pyat, Rochefort, Milliere, Gambon, Malon, Tridon, 
Tolain and Vesinier.f Varlin and Cluseret were 
defeated candidates. The rural districts sent 
Orleanists and Clericals, and some Republicans 
came from the cities. In session at Bordeaux, 
IVLGrevywas, February 1 6th, almost unanimously 
elected President of the newly formed Assembly; 
Adolphe Thiers, on February 17th, was chosen, 

*" A resistance was organized by Gambetta, at the liead of a stock-jobbing 
clique, whose interests, both commercial and political, forbade them to let 
the war die out, lest they should find themseh^es face to face with a people 
determined to be fleeced no longer.— William Morris and E. Belfort Bax. 

tVesinier had been Secretary to Eugene Sue. 



14 THE) PARIS COMMUNK. 

by the Assembly, as President of the French 
Republic. 

There was an evident desire on the part of 
this Assembly to take upon itself general govern- 
mental functions in addition to the special duty for 
which it had been elected."" 

General Vinoy had disarmed 250,000 men on 
February 9th, thus billeting upon Paris and vicinity 
a huge number of men without pay and, under the 
existing disturbances, without hope of employ- 
ment; 12,000 men retained their arms to " protect 
the peace of Paris." 

The latter part of February saw the Paris 
military formulating plans, and an arrangement 
was made to protect their interests. There were 
20 Councils of Legion, one in each arrondis- 
sement, each Council composed of four representa- 
tives from each batta lion. Every Council of Legion 
sent four representatives to form a Central 
Directorate, which was to be the governing military 
power. All representatives to be elected by the 
Guards. A few batta lions refused to join. The 
Directorate took the name of * ' The Central Com- 
mittee of the National Guard." This Committee 
superseded in power, and largely in personnel, the 
committee elected from the arrondissements in the 
previous autumn. 

M. Favre was the most fervent of the public 
men in his protestations against surrendering on the 
terms of "^the Prussians, declaring, as Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, that the Government of National 
Defence would never "surrender an inch of terri- 
tory or a stone of a fortress." Bismarck and Thiers, 

*Ex-Emperor Napoleon addressed the Assembly calling their attention 
to the specific purpose for which they had been elected and their consequent 
usurpation of power in continuing as a general represeBtative body for the 
Republic,— j^'ar^er's Magazine, April, 1S71. 



SEPTEMBER 20 TO MARCH I. I 5 

on F'ebruary 26th, signed the peace treaty at Ver- 
sailles. Paris was turned over to the Germans, and 
two of France's richest provinces — Alsace and 
Lorraine — went to the victors. A war indemnity 
of $100,000,000 was agreed upon, and there were 
many other exacting stipulations in the treaty. 

On February 27th, Brunei, Piazza andVermorel, 
imprisoned for political offenses, w^ere released by 
the National Guards, who captured the prison; 
the Guards were becoming very active in opposi- 
tion to the Assembly, which was a source of irri- 
tation to the Parisians because of its decision for 
peace. 

Immediately preceding the entry of the Ger- 
mans into the city, some cannon were stored by 
General Vinoy near the quarters to be occupied 
by the conquerors. Being afraid of seeing them 
fall into the hands of the invaders, and possibly 
turned against the citizens, the National Guard 
and the populace transferred the guns to posi- 
tions of importance in the city, principally Mont- 
martre, Belleville, Buttes Chaumont and La 
Villette. Edouard Moreau, an active member of the 
Committee Central, was foremost in directing 
these operations. 

The guns were furnished by subscriptions 
of the National Guard,* and in the articles of 
peace were recognized as the property of the Guard, 
but Th rs, when expediency furnished a pretext, 
demanded the cannon as *'the property of the 
nation." 

A committee was appointed from the National 
Guard to take charge of the defence of Montmartre. 

♦Address Int. W. A. 



1 6 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

III. 

March, Montmartre and The Commune. 



The terms of peace agreed to by Thiers were 
ratified by a vote of 546 for to 107 against in the 
Assembly at Bordeaux on March ist. It was also 
decided to strip Paris of her position of capital 
and curb her republican tendencies. The pay of 
the guards was withheld. Many of the Paris dep- 
uties, feeling insulted by these acts of the Assem- 
bly, returned to the metropolis. 

At II o'clock on March ist the German troops 
commenced their entry into Paris; in a few hours 
30,000 of them occupied the quarters agreed upon. 
They were received with opprobrious epithets by 
some of the populace; but few people were on 
the streets; the theaters suspended their perform- 
ances; mourning was hung on many houses; 
busine|s places were closed in the parts of city oc- 
cupied by the invaders. The German troops retired 
from Paris on the 3d, joining about 50,000 
Germans who occupied the forts on the north of 
the city. 

The higher officers of the Guards formed a 
committee which amalgamated with the elected 
Committee Central of the Guard. The military 
forces in Paris now decided upon a closer alli- 
ance. The Federals and the National Guard formed 
"The Republican Federation." The forces in Paris 
will hereafter be designated generally as Federates, 



MARCH, MONTMARTRE AND THE COMMUiSK. l^ 

which includes Mobiles, ( reserves ) Franc-tireurs 
(irregulars ) and many regulars, ( soldiers of the 
line) who now allied themselves with the National 
Guard. The Central Committee at this time 
received as members, four delegates especially 
deputed from the International Workingmen's 
Association. Several members of the latter had 
been before this time elected from the Guards to 
the Committee; all officers higher than chiefs of 
batta lion were also recognized as members of 
the Central Committee. 

The Assembly appointed officers for the 
Parisian military; the latter declared their inten- 
tion of obeying no officers not elected by 
themselves. On March 7th the reserves in all dis- 
tricts outside the city were disbanded. On March 
nth the government suspended five papers edited 
respectively by Rochefort, Jules Valles, Felix 
Pyat, Vermesch and Humbert, Paschal Grousset, 
and one other edited anonymously. These papers 
had vigorously and truthfully attacked the gov- 
ernment for its unfriendly attitude toward Paris. 
The trial by military court of those who were prom- 
inent in the affairs of October 31st and January 22d 
now came on. The accused were acquitted, with 
two exceptions — Blanqui and Flourens — who were 
sentenced to death. Flourens was at liberty in a 
quarter of the city which protected him; Blanqui 
was ill, but was put under arrest at once. Both 
of the condemned men issued proclamations call- 
ing on the citizens to unite to estabhsh a govern- 
ment of the people. 

Flourens and Blanqui were condemned to 
death on March nth, the same day that the 
Assembly's decision to remove the nation's capital 
from Paris to Versailles became definitely known. 



1 8 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

These two events so manifestly inimical to the 
Paris populace, created an intense excitement 
Mutterings of discontent were heard on every hand. 

Thiers and the Assembly government arrived 
in Paris on March 15th and at once set about 
finding means to disarm the people and to transfer 
the governmental center to Versailles.* 

Attempts by peaceful means to obtain pos- 
session of the cannon at Montmartre, through 
the Mayor of i8th Arrondissement, were futile; 
the Guards and the people refused to give them up. 

General Vinoy is said to have entered the 
Montmartre district, on a tour of inspection, 
where he was villified by the women, pelted with 
stones and other missiles; but the crowning insult 
to the military leader was the offer to him of a 
workingman's cap. 

On March i6th a meeting was held by the 
Federates; officers were elected. Garibaldi was 
elected general in chief. Lullier, a forcible 
speaker and a great swaggerer, was appointed 
colonel of artillery. Eudes, Duval, Henry and 
others, afterward prominent in the defence, were 
chosen chiefs of battalion. 

On the following day Thiers issued a proc- 
lamation to the citizens of Paris, demanding the 
return of the cannon to the arsenals and the 
deliverance to justice of "criminals" who "affect 
to institute a government," and threatening force 
if the disarmament was not immediate. In the 
evening, an unsuccessful attempt w^as made to 
obtain possessionof 56 cannon at Place des Vosges; 
these guns were removed that night by the Fed- 
erates to Belleville and the Buttes Chaumont. The 

♦Versailles is situated 11 miles suuth-west of Paris, and in 1870 had about 
45,000 inliabitants. 



MARCH, MONTMARTRK AND THE) COMMUNK. 1 9 

Federates now had in their possession 471 pieces 
of artillery, 171 of which were at Montmartre. 

About 3 o'clock on the morning of March 
1 8th an attempt was made by the Assembly's 
troops to take the cannon from Montmartre. This 
effort, made by a detachment under General 
lyecomte, would have been successful if transport- 
ation of the artillery after capture had been 
properly arranged for. The populace and most 
of the Federates were asleep. A faint defence 
was made. Several Federates were shot, a few 
captured; these were placed in No. 6 Rue des 
Rosiers, which house had, the day before, been the 
quarters of the Montmartre Defence Committee. 
Hours of waiting for horses to haul away the 
cannon followed the capture. Rockets were fired 
from Federate strongholds, and the rappel was 
sounded in many quarters. 

The morning of the i8th dawned. Proclama- 
tions had been posted in the neighborhood by 
Ivccomte on behalf of the government in the 
name of ''law and order." These the women tore 
down. The rallying populace and Federates won 
over the soldiery. The women fed and brought 
wine to the Assembly troops on guard; the 
Federates appealed to the friendship of their 
comrades, and a general fraternization took place 
between the troops brought to capture the cannon 
and those who had placed them on Montmartre. 
The crowds forced back the guards, who yielded 
ground with scarcely a show of reluctance. Le- 
comte was incensed and addressed those showing 
their friendliness to the people, saying, "You shall 
have your deserts for this." 

Lecomte three or four times ordered his 
men to fire on the crowd, but they refused, and 



20 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

finally j oined the people in capturing the general 
and some of his officers. Some of his soldiers, 
whom he had ordered under arrest for not firing 
into the crowd, wished to shoot him forthwith. 
The prisoners were taken to Chateau Rouge, a 
short distance from the scene of the arrest, and 
lyccomte was made to sign an order for the 
evacuation of Montmartre. 

Some of lyecomte's men, recognized as gen- 
d'armes under Napoleon III, were killed by the 
people and Federates. 

About 2 p. m. Lecomte and lo other officers 
were removed from Chateau Rouge to 6 Rue des 
Rosiers, where there was a clamorous assembly of 
the people and Guards, the latter incensed by the 
wrongs of their comrades, and all maddened by 
the strong efforts made by the commanding officer 
in the morning to have his troops fire on the 
people. lyccomte's soldiers, who had felt his 
severity, struggled, assisted by the people, to 
take him from the guards. 

A new prisoner was now introduced, amid an 
awful din. This was General Clement Thomas, 
said to have been captured while in the act of 
taking plans of the barracks on the boulevard 
Rochechaument.* He was almost immediately 
taken from those in charge, hurried to the yard 
adj oining and shot to death. "He stood up boldly 
to receive his death, and shaking his fist at 
his executioners, denounced them as cowards." 
{''Laches.'') A vol ley was not tired, the soldiers 

*He was passing in an inoffensive manner through the Rue Marie- An- 
toinette, when one of the insurgents having recognized him by his large 
white beard, went straight to him, saying, " You are General Clement 
Thomas? I don't think I can be mistaken. That beard of yours betrays 
you." " Well, supposing I am General Thomas. Have I not always done 
my duty?" "You are a traitor and a miserable!" said the insurgent, 
grasping the old man by the collar. He was immediately assisted by others, 
who helped to drag the General in the direction of Rue des Rosiers.— jfefridflie. 



MARCH, MONTMARTRB AND THK COMMUNE. 21 

shooting singly; Thomas did not fall until the fif- 
teenth shot, although struck many times before. 

General Clement Thomas had not been much 
heard of since he had assisted the enemies of the 
people in the butcheries of June. 

This, and the incidents next related were not 
likely to make either the populace or the Federates 
friendly to him. 

General Tamisier resigned as chief of the 
Guard when the Government of the National 
Defence broke its agreement with the leaders of 
the uprising of October and January by bringing 
them to trial. Clement Thomas was appointed 
his successor by the Government of the National 
Defence. He is accused of pitting the working- 
mens' battallions of the Guard against those 
recruited from the middle-class, and causing to be 
disbanded, by false assertions of cowardice, some of 
the bravest batta:lions, who wished to fight the 
Germans but who were not favorable to the 
singular plans of General Trochu, whom General 
Thomas served obseqiously. Clement Thomas 
had also resigned as commandant-in-chief of the 
National Guard on February 15th, 187 1. 

After the killing of General Thomas, I,ecomte 
was the marched out and shot to death against 
the wall in the same place formerly occu- 
pied by General Thomas, whose body now lay at 
Lecomte's feet; he pleaded on behalf of his 

family for the mercy he had never shown. What 
had he cared for the families of those upon whom 
he had repeatedly ordered his troops to fire that 
morning? The first shot fired struck L<ecomte 
behind the ear, killing him instantly. 

Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas 
were killed by the infuriated soldiers and the 



22 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

inhabitants of the quarter * The shooting of 
Thomas was principally done by the members of 
the National Guard, who had served under him; 
Lecomte was killed by his own men,^ largely from 
the 88th regiment, who jeered at him as he was 
led out, and cried out to him, "Its your turn now; 
you gave the order to fire on the people." There 
is an undecided question as to whether Lecomte 
had a trial, but the belief is that he had some 
form of a trial. Evidence is lacking which would 
support the belief that General Thomas had any 
trial, t The other arrested officers were released. 

Shortly before Lecomte's arrest, some horses 
arrived at Montmartre; they were harnessed to 
several guns, and accompanied by a party of 
soldiers of the line, started from the heights 
toward the city; were intercepted by Federates; 
the women of the district threw themselves on the 
guns; the regulars fraternized with the Federates; 
the traces on the harnesses were cut, and the 
cannon were dragged away by the people. 

Endeavors by the Government to regain 
cannon in other quarters of the city had been in 
slight degree successful, but had generally failed 
more through the inadequacy of discipline and 
force in the attacking parties, than through the 
defensive efforts of the Federates. 

The 88th regiment of the line was the soldiery 
which first occupied Montmartre, and afterward 
fraternized with the populace. This regiment 

*0n the 26th March, 1871, the National Assembly decreed that pensions 
should be awarded to the widows of the two generals and that a monument 
to them should be erected at the expense of the State. This monument has 
been constructed at Pere Lachaise, of granite from Flanders. The remains 
of the two generals were deposited there on the 26th of December, 1875.— 

tThe tribunal that condemned the generals was said to have been pre- 
sided over by an artisan of the International Society named Asai.—CasseU. 



MARCH, MONTMARTRE AND THE) COMMUNK. 23 

was disbanded after the fall of the Commune, 
never to again exist in the army of France. 

General d'Aurelles des Paladines, who suc- 
ceeded Clement Thomas as Commander of the 
National Guard, issued a proclamation in the after- 
noon of the 1 8th March, calling on the Guards to 
" rally round their chiefs" as " the only means of 
escaping ruin and the domination of the foreigner." 
Of the 1 06th Battalion ( which had defended the 
Hotel de Ville on October 31st, against the in- 
surrectionists) but 300 of the 1200 men responded; 
other battalions supposed to be loyal responded in 
about the same ratio. Kvery development showed 
strength for the uprising. 

The affair of March i8th was the signal for a 
general movement for defence against the govern- 
ment. Barricades were erected, guns mounted, 
and bystanders were called upon to work at build- 
ing, or to assist in the defence of street fortifications. 
The Central Committee took charge of the greater 
part of the city, and had at least 100,000 troops 
at its command. The government had only a 
few thousand, many of which were likely, at any 
time, to fraternize with the Federates and the 
people. 

A few slight conflicts took place on the 19th, 
the insurrectionists being always victorious. A 
call was issued by the Committee Central for an 
election of officials to govern the city, in which 
was said : '* Let Paris and France together 
establish the basis of a Republic, acclaimed with 
all its consequences, the only government that will 
forever close the era of invasions and civil wars." 
This w^as signed by Assi, Billioray, Ferrat, 
Babick, Kdouard Moreau, C. Dupont, Varlin, 
Boursier, Martier, Gushier, Lavalette, Fr. Jourde, 



24 I'HK PARIS COMMUNE. 

Rousseau, Ch. lyuUier, Blanchet, J. GroUard, 
Barroud, H, Geresme, Fabre and Pougerot. 

Command of the National Guard was, by the 
Mayors, given to General Langlois. He was 
rejected by the Central Committee and lyullier 
was elected commander by the Federates. 

The officials of the Assembly government 
clandestinely left the city; Thiers leaving by 
the back door of the Hotel de Ville. General 
Vinoy took with him some troops and baggage, 
and by lo a. m., March 19th, most of the 
Assembly's soldiers had left Paris. Almost every 
governmental post w^as deserted. A battalion 
of the National Guard which passed the Foreign 
Office, about 4 a.m. of the 19th, uttering menacing 
cries, is said to have accelerated the movements 
of the fleeing government. 

When the officials fled the city, correspondence 
was found which fully revealed the perfidious 
character of the Government of the National 
Defence. 

The Assembly cut the telegraph wires to 
prevent all communication with the outside 
provinces. The prefects of the provinces were 
informed by the Assembly that if any edicts 
emanating from Paris be published, the prefect of 
the district where the publication took place 
would be immediately arrested. The fortifications 
surrounding the city were evacuated by order 
of Thiers and the troops marched to Versailles to 
guard the persons of the officials. The forts 
remained unoccupied many hours, each member 
of the Central Committee assuring himself that 
some of the Committees' officials would attend to 
to their occupation by the Federates. The events 
of the struggle awaited neither the dilatory 



MARCH, MONTH ARTRK AND THE COMMUNE. 25 

tactics nor the education by experience of those 
placed in positions of responsibility in Paris. C 

Fort Valerian, the strategic key of the defence 
of Paris was manned by a strong force from Ver- 
sailles as soon as the government's blunder in 
withdrawing the troops was appreciated. But 
before this was accomplished. General Vinoy is 
said to have pleaded unsuccessfully for hours with 
Thiers, who persistantly refused to sanction the 
re-occupation, afraid of exposing his own person 
to danger if the troops were removed from Ver- 
sailles. Thiers was in great perturbation, fearing 
the march of the Federates on his capital, whirh, 
it was conceded, was sure to fall into their hands if 
the attack was made. Indecision was prominent 
in the action of both parties. Neither knew 
exactly its position or its strength. 

The five forts on the south — Issy, Vanves, 
Montrouge, Irvy, Bic^tre — were occupied by the 
Federates. They took charge of the Hotel de 
Ville after a slight conflict. Jules Ferry, Central 
Mayor, was ousted; soon after, being threatened on 
the streets by a mob who shouted ''Death to 
Ferry," he took refuge in the house of a friend, 
escaped out of a back window by means of a 
ladder, and accompanied by many others of the 
friends of the Assembly, slipped away to Ver- 
sailles. The Committee Central speedily took 
possession of all public buildings and raised over 
them the red flag.* 

Marshals McMahon and Canrobert also sought 
the seat of the Versailles government, the fate of 
Lecomte and Clement Thomas indicating sur- 
roundings not favorable for military leaders. 

* The establishment of that Republic which takes pillage as its leading 
principle and blazons its banners with the hues of murder.— Cassert 



26 THS PARIS COMMUNE. 

Most of the city ofi&cials had taken them- 
selves to Versailles, and the organization of the 
city now devolved upon the Committee Central. 
A communication was received by the new city 
government from the commander of the German 
troops occupying the forts on the north of the city, 
in which it was stated that the Prussians would not 
interfere with the internal dissensions if no 
enmity was shown toward foreigners. This made 
the Committee Central much more at ease and 
Paschal Grousset framed an answer acceptable 
to the Committee, which was forwarded to the 
German commander. 

Thiers ordered 50,000 francs to be paid by 
the Bank of France for the arrears due the loyal 
National Guards.^^ 

March 20th the Guards' command was, by the 
Mayors, and by sanction of Thiers, placed in the 
hands of Vice-Admiral Saisset. The new com- 
mander wished to take active measures at once, and 
troops were necessary to support him; a few 
Guards friendly to the Assembly, principally small 
traders, were still in the city; these he endeavored 
to mobilize. Saisset, with the disposition exhib- 
ited by all officials and parties connected with 
Parisian public affairs, promulgated various proc- 
lamations. He could find no authoritative basis 
satisfactory to the people, and his numerous 
proclamations gained for him little consideration. 
Bonne, a tailor, Captain in the Guards friendly to 
the Assembly, also issued a proclamation calling on 
all to support the Assembly "in the interests of so- 
ciety." A Captain Vitroley issued a proclama- 

*General d'Aurelles des Paladines attached much weight to the insincerity 
of M. Picard as a factor in creating dissatisfaction in the Guard. The pay- 
ments due the Guards were always needlessly delayed; some were never paid. 



MARCH, MONTMARTRK AND THE COMMUNE. 2^ 

tion in Saisset's behalf, imploring support for him 
in the interest of "order." Saisset could get no 
troops together in Paris; Thiers would send none 
from Versailles, as he feared an attack by the 
Federates. 

The Versailles government in the Journal 
Officiel denounced the killing of Lecomte and 
Clement Thomas as assassination and charged 
the Committee Central with the crime. The Rappel, 
a revolutionary paper, announced the fact of the 
killing of the generals with expressions of pro- 
found sorrow; stated that the National Guards en- 
deavored to prevent the shooting, but that the 
angry crowd and the soldiers of the line cried out 
for death. For the most part, the supporters of 
the revolt declared that by their acts toward the 
people the generals had forfeited their lives; that 
they had "made themselves amenable to the laws 
of war, which does not allow the assassination of 
women or espoinage." The Committee Central 
declared its intention of investigating the cir- 
cumstances of the killing, but no reports of such 
investigation appear in the records. 

Appeals for desertions from the Parisian to 
the Versailles support were responded to only by 
the students of the lyatin Quarter, who had been 
formerly of ultra-revolutionary tendencies, but 
who could not reasonably be expected, either 
from education or position in life, to join a move- 
ment so markedly proletarian as was the revolt 
now in progress. The National Guards who were 
especially appealed to, were firm in their adher- 
ance to the Committee Central. 

The Mayors, to whom Thiers had delegated 
full powers, appointed a committee of three — M. 
Tirard, M. Dubail and M. Helegion to organize a 



28 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

resistance to the Committee Central, now fully 
recognized as the dominant factor in affairs. 
Bdouard Moreau, Jourde and Varlin acted for the 
Committee Central. In a conference the latter 
desired to control the Guards, but was willing to 
give the Mayors full municipal powers. This the 
latter refused. At this point, it is stated that the 
Central Committee delegates declared that "if it 
came to a conflict " and the Federates were 
defeated, they would "make of the country a 
second Poland." 

There was a vague rumor afloat, probably 
unfounded, that Saisset intended attempting to 
establish himself as a dictator. He yielded up his 
authority, disbanded his troops, and went to 
Versailles on Saturday the 25th, .to be reproached 
for his action by the irascible and unstable poli- 
ticians of the Assembly, who would neither advise 
nor assist him.^ 

On the 20th the Assembly declared the De- 
partment of the Seine and Oise to be in a state 
of seige. 

The Committee Central immediately ordered 
an election for Communal Councilors, on the basis 
of one representative for each 20,000 inhabitants, 
the election to take place March 22d. l!\ie/o2irnal 
Officiel, the government organ, had been taken 
over and published by the Committee Central. 
The government at Versailles also published a 
Journal Officiel^ which together with the Mayors 
of the arrondisements, protested against the hold- 
ing of the election called by the Committee 
Central. On March 20th, 29 Paris papers issued 
a protest against the election. 

*"Saisset disbanded his few battalions * * * and left on foot and in 
disgnise for Versailles, where he reported to M. Thiers that it would take 
300,000 men to suppress the Communal movement in Paris."— CasseW. 



MARCH, MONTMARTRK AND THE) COMMUNE). 29 

Raoul Rigault took charge of the Police 
department by order of the Committee Central. 

Louis Blanc, Milliere and others of the ex- 
treme Republican members of the Assembly, 
posted a manifesto in Paris on the 20th, in which 
they promised to bring before the Assembly the 
matters of the election of all officers of the Guard 
by its members, and a municipal council to be 
elected by all citizens in Paris. 

In the Assembly's sitting on the 21st, M. 
Thiers spoke several times, using the most 
conciliatory language toward the radicals; he 
promised a municipal council for Paris, and de- 
clared that under no circumstances would he send 
an armed force against that city. Already the 
efforts made to increase the forces surrounding 
Paris were showing results, and every event 
showed the insincerity of these statements made 
by the head of the Versailles government. 

The Committee Central delegated Tony Moilin 
as Mayor of the 6th arrondissement, in place of 
M. Herisson. Moilin, after gaining possession of 
the Mairie and being displaced, was again installed 
by three battalions of Guards under Lullier. 

What was called an ' ' order ' ' manifestation 
took place on the 21st. Considerable numbers of 
men paraded the streets crying "Down with the 
Committee Central." Some altercations occurred 
which, for a time, threatened a loss of life. A few 
arrests were made, by order of the Committee 
Central. The Federates seized several arsenals 
and equipped citizens with arms and munitions. 

M. Bonjean, President of the Court of Cas- 
sation, an aged jurist and an ardent supporter of 
the Assembly, w^as arrested, but upon no definite 
charge. 



30 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

On the next day an " order " procession con- 
sisting principally of civilians, but containing 
many men in the National Guard uniform, all ap- 
parently unarmed, was interrupted in its march as it 
attempted an entrance to the Place Vendome from 
the Rue de la Paix.* As the front ranks came up, 
the Guards in the Place Vendome turned the butts 
of their guns toward the crowd, who filled the air 
with cries for the Assembly and of " Down 
with the Committee Central." It seemed for a 
time that the affair might not be serious, but as 
those in the front ranks of the parade were crowded 
upon the Guards, recriminating and altercations 
occurred. The partisans of "order" attempted to 
disarm the Federates. A shot was fired. General 
Phil Sheridan, U.S. A., (who had accompanied the 
German army during the Franco-German war, and 
who . had arrived in Paris March 2d) was an 
eye-witness of this affair, said the '* order" repre- 
sentatives did the first firing;t the Federates were 
also fired upon from the windows of surrounding 
houses. When the Federates opened fire, the 
crowd scattered, running wildly in all directions to 
escape the fusilade. The firing lasted but a few 
moments. Eleven of the ** order" partisans were 
killed, and probably three times as many were 
wounded. Pistols, swordsticks and missiles were 
found on the bodies of the participants in the 
parade who were killed or wounded, and weapons 
were plentifully scattered upon the ground from 
which they had been driven. 

* The demonstration advanced with Admiral Saisset at its head * until 
* stopped * by * Guards, with baj'onets, who filled * the entrance 
to the Place Vendome.— CasseM. 

" They were without arms and most respectable in appearance— few 
blouses, * if any, were to be seen." — Fetridge. 

t The Assembly declared that General Sheridan was "against them" because 
he made this statement. 



MARCH, MONTMARTRE AND THE COMMUNE. 3I 

Otto Hottinguer, regent of the Bank of France 
and a member of the great banking firm of 
Hottinguer & Co., and M. Nathan, another banker, 
were killed. One young American, an ex-soldier 
in the civil war in the United States, who had 
joined the French army against the Germans, 
was also among the killed. 

Two Federates were killed, Wahlin and Fran- 
cois; eight were wounded — Maljournal, Cochet, 
Ancelot, lyCgat, Reyer, Train and Laborde. 

The Journal Officiel says — " The first of the 
dead taken to the ambulance of the Credit 
Mobilier was Viscount de Molinet, who had 
been in the front of the crowd, and who 
was wounded in the back of the head. He fell 
at the corner of the Rue de la Paix and Neuve- 
des-Petits-Champs, on the Place Vendome side, 
with his face to the ground. The fact is clear 
that he was struck by his companions, for had he 
fallen in flying the body would have lain in the 
direction of the New Opera. On the corpse was 
found a poniard attached to the waist-belt by 
a chain." 

The " peace" demonstration shows evidence 
of being an attempt to reach and seize the 
Committee Central headquarters in the Place 

" The Federates were paid six sous per day; one sou in cash, and five in 
the checques of the Central Committee; the latter were not readily negotiable, 
which was a source of much dissatisfaction to the soldiery." — Cassell. 

The •• Syndical Chambers of Stonemasons and Stonesawyers " on the 
22d posted a manifesto printed on red paper, in the neighborhood of the 
Hotel de Ville. In part it said: "The difficult epoch which we are passing 
through must have brought us to serious reflection on the subject of our 
social position as workmen We must ask ourselves whether we, the pro- 
ducers, ought to allow those who do not produce anything to live at ease; 
whether the system which has been pursued till now is destined to exist for 
all time, even'when it is entirely opposed to us. * * Our employers only 
think at this moment how to profit by our misery, in order to extort more 
from us, if possible. If we are true to ourselves, we will check their base 
rapacity. Let us prove our attachment to the sacred cause of Democracy," 



32 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

Vendome, and the vigorous attempt to break the 
line where the fighting took place was certainly 
not a pacific movement. 

The supporters of each party claimed that the 
opposition killed its own men and the reports of 
the affair are a mass of contradictory statements. 
The number of Guards killed and wounded, the 
friendly attitude of the Guards until the first shot 
was fired, together with the other circumstances 
surrounding this affair, bear out the belief that the 
intention was to overthrow the Committee's forces 
and establish Saisset in the Place Vendome. 

Bergeret, who was in charge of the Federates, 
said: "At i o'clock a crowd of ten thousand 
advanced and overpowered the first line, wrenched 
the rifles from the troops * * The crowd * 
* commenced using their revolvers and four of 
our men fell * * The Guards fired first in the 
air. * Some, enraged at seeing their comrades 
fall, fired at the crowd. We do not want war, nor 

Favre made a speech on March 22d in the Assembly on the affair of the 
killing- of Generals Clement Thomas and Lecomte. He said that the crime 
had soiled the Republic with blood. He described the assassination of the 
generals as committed by wretches worthy no kind of pity, for they had 
shown none either for civilization or for Fr&nce.—Washbicrn. 

Besides the persons killed on the Place Vendome, thirty -three men (ac- 
cording: to a correspondent of the Manchester Crttardian) were put to death, 
in the latter days of March, on the most frivolous pretexts. Three of these 
were shot by National Guards at Belleville, because the latter did not admire 
the way they were dressed. One of the most shocking events of the time 
was the execution of an old man, seventy-eight years of age, named Bignon, 
who, some half century before, had denounced and caused the execution of 
four sergeants at La Rochelle, accused of political offences, Bignon was 
recognized in the Rue de Rivoli by a grandson of one of the sergeants, named 
Pommier, The young man was sitting before a cafe, chatting with a friend, 
when he suddenly and abruptly rose, went up to a man who was passing by, 
aud said he arrested him as the person who had denounced the four ser- 
geants. After a few words had been exchanged, Bignon disengaged himself 
from the grasp of his assailant, and ran away, but was recaptured by the 
crowd, who wished to shoot him on the spot. Young Pommier, however, 
interposed, saying that the man belonged to the justice of the land, and that 
the magistrates of the Republic must pass sentence on him. j He was then 
conducted to the Mairie of the fourth arrondissement, and was afterwards put 
to death. 



MARCH, MONTMARTRE AND THE COMMUNE. 33 

do we wish to kill each other, but what can 
we do?" 

On the 22d the pupils of the Polytechnic 
School were given a vacation, and the youths 
placed themselves at the disposal of the city 
authorities, acting as aides-de-camp to the Pro- 
visonal Staff at the Place de la Bourse. 

A loyal regiment of the Guards with arms, 
three cannon and baggage forced its way through 
the city gates on the 226., and marched to Versailles, 
where it was received with great enthusiasm and 
its officers promoted. 

Delegations to Versailles from various organ- 
izations seeking conciliation were numerous, but 
they received none but equivocal answers 
from the Assembly. The Mayors declared they 
could not sanction the election unless it was first 
authorized by the Versailles government; on the 
24th a dozen or more of them visited the Assembly 
at Versailles to affect an agreement for Sunday, 
March 26, as the day of election. A fierce dis- 
pute arose in the Assembly as to whether the 
Mayors should be heard. There finally occurred 
such disorder that the visitors withdrew without 
even havinghad a respectful hearing. On returning 
home a maj ority of the Mayors and the Committee 
Central agreed on an election for the 26th. This 
was opposed by the Versaillese, assisted by the 
bourgeois press of Paris, all of whom hoped to 
gain by delay 

On the 24th more proclamations were posted, 
one stating the Assembly's willingness to allow 
the election of a municipal council; the National 
Guards to elect all its own officers; modifications 
regarding rent laws, and arrangements to ease 
small rent-payers. I^ouis Blanc and other radicals 



34 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

in the Assembly were in favor of a vote of approval 
on the action of the Mayors, (afterward almost 
unanimously defeated) but the general feeling 
among the Assembly's members was one of con- 
sternation at the agreement of the Mayors with the 
Committee Central on this important matter. 

There was an irreconcii.ible though natural 
difference of opinion upon many subjects between 
the inhabitants of the French rural districts and 
the denizens of the large cities. The former 
were conservative and religious; the latter radical 
and atheistic; the first from the standpoint of the 
small land holder and the petty trader of the small 
towns, held for individual property; the last — 
full of propertiless artisans and laborers — were 
strongly Communistic; the rurals were peaceful 
and subservient; the wage-earners aggressive and 
rebellious; the country was personified in the 
Assembly; the city in the Commune. These 
opposing elements were bristling with rage and 
glaring at each other during these last days of 
March. In Le Venguer Felix Pyat said : " The 
Royal army took the Imperial army prisoner. It 
has not yet captured the red flag. ^ * Let the 
rurals in Versailles go home and feed their cows." 
The radical Paris papers were full of braggadocio 
and rhodomontade. The Assembly hastened the 
collection of troops, arms and munitions at Ver- 
sailles. 

Subterranean tunnels had been constructed in 
the city during the Second Empire. The work- 
ingmen who built these passages were told that 
they were to be used as sewers. As a matter of 
fact Napoleon III had connected all the principal 
barracks with the Hotel de Ville, to be able to pour a 
military force on any revolutionary body which 



MARCH, MONTMARTRK AND THE COMMUNK- 35 

might obtain possession of the centre of civil 
authority in the city. It was by this underground 
route that the Breton Mobiles entered for the 
defence of Trochu October 31st, 1870. The plan 
of these underground passages had been but 
partially disclosed to the Committee Central and 
there was much fear, on the part of the Federate 
authorities, of a surprise of the Hotel de Ville. 
Large bodies of armed men occupied the grounds 
about the city's capitol, and every precaution was 
taken to prevent an entry.. This fear was not 
dissipated until the Commune was, as its members 
believed, solidly established by the election of 
the 26th. 

On March 25th Generals Chanzy and Lan- 
gourian, who had been arrested by orders from 
officials of the Committee Central on March 19th, 
were, by agreement, released, and a member 
of the Committee Central (arrested at Passy by 
the Assembly's supporters on the same day that 
the generals had been arrested) was set at liberty. 

Charles Lullier (since the 19th in command 
of the Federates), was suspended as commander 
and imprisoned, on suspicion of treachery appar- 
ently well founded; the command had been tendered 
Garibaldi, the distinguished revolutionist, who 
had taken the field for the French in the war 
with Germany „ 

On election day, the Committee Central posted 
a proclamation claiming to have fulfilled its duty, 
and desiring that the Commune, when elected, 
should take up the entire work of the city govern- 
ment. There were some suggestions in the pro- 
clamation respecting a compromise with the Ver- 
saillese. It has been intimated that this document 
was issued to gain votes for the members of the 



36 THK PARIS COMMUNK. 

Committee Central, many of whom were candidates 
for election to the Commune. Other proclama- 
tions of various import were posted; one signed 
by Lefrancais and Jules Valles, on behalf of the 
Committee of the Arrondissements, solicited votes 
for Socialist candidates. The Committee Central 
announced the city under military control of 
Generals Brunei, Kudes and Duval. The election 
was for one representative for each 20,000 inhab- 
itants or majority fraction thereof. 

Sunday, the 26th, was a day of brightness and 
beauty. The pleasure-loving populace made the 
most of it, and Paris was a scene of fashion and 
gaiety, as well as of political action. There was 
but little disorder at the polls, except in the dis- 
tricts which were strong in sympathizers of the 
Assembly. In some cases blows were struck, a 
very unusual occurrence in France, but no fatal- 
ities or serious injury to persons were reported. 

Less than 500,000 voters were listed; about 
half this number voted, a fact much discussed by 
the Versaillese, as the result showed the solidarity 
of the working classes and the apathy of the 
friends of the Assembly.* There was a sentiment, 
often expressed by the opponents of the Commune, 
and particularly by the bourgeoisie of Paris, that 
the right to municipal control by the members of 
the Commune was vitiated because of the large 

*Astonishing' variations appear in the statements regarding: the number 
of votes cast; one author states that over 600,000 votes were cast, 550,000 
of which were for radical candidates— a too evident error. 

ELECTION OF THE COMMUNE, MARCH 26, 1871. 
AS STATED 
BT 

E. Belfort Bax . . , 
T. March ..... 

W. P. Fetridge 180,000 

E. B. Washburn 

Cassell .... 120,000 



TOTAL 


FOR 


VOTE CAST 


EADICAL CANDIDATES 


287,000 




224,000 




180,000 


120,000 


168,000 


108,000 



MARCH, MONTMARTRE AND THE COMMUNE- 37 

number of absentees from the polls. '"^ These 
observations seem to leave out of consideration 
the fact that the absentees, by their absence, 
surrendered their qualification to representation. 

In Montmartre, Belleville, Montrouge and 
Villette the voting was practically unanimous for 
the workingmen candidates; 17 of the 20 arrond- 
issements elected radicals; Passy, the Louvre and 
the Bourse districts elected representatives not in 
harmony with the Commune. 

As soon as the results of the election became 
known on the evening of the 26th, there were 
great rejoicings in Paris. Fire works were let 
oflPin various parts of the city. The Tuilleries 
was thrown open, and speeches were made to 
great crowds by orators mounted on pedestals 
from which statues had been removed. 

The elected delegates of the Commune were, 
as had been the case with the Committee Central 
members, largely unknown outside the class or 
district to which they belonged. 

Felix Pyat, Delescluze, Blanqui, ( who had 
spent two-thirds of his life in prison for political 
offences) Flourens and Gambon were prominent, 
having been much in public life. Blanqui was 
chosen three times; Pyat and Flourens each twice. 
Delescluze was elected from several arrondisse- 
ments. He immediately sent in his resignation 
as Member of the Assembly, in which communi- 
cation he declared his intention of serving the 
Republic and desired not to further associate 
himself with "the insanities and passions of the 
Versailles Chamber." 

By the election of the same citizen for more 
than one arrondissement and for other reasons, the 
total elections were 93; duplicates 8, triplicates 7; 



38 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

total persons elected 86. Some who were elected 
never served, and there were many resignations 
during the life of the Commune. 

Elected, But Did Not Serve— Adam, Meline, Brelay, 
Loiseau-Pinson, Tirard, Cheron, Albert Leroy, Goupil, Rob- 
inett, Rano, U. Parent, Desmerest, E. Ferry, Nast, Fruneau, 
Marmottan. De Beuteiller, Murat, Lefever, Barre .... 20 

Twelve of these persons had been either mayors or adjuncts 
elected in November, 1870; they were Adam, Meline, Brelay, 
Lnisean-Pinson, Murat, Albert Leroy, Desmerest,. Ferry, 
Nast. Tirard, Max-mottan, Cheron. The first nine of these had 
signed the agreement made with the Committee Central, and 
Tirard had given in his adhesion to it. 

Deducting the members above and also Blanqui, who 
was held in prison by Thiers, there remained a total of sixty- 
four persons, whose respective claims to popular favor may 
be roughly gauged by the division under which they fall. 

Members of th3 Committee Central— Arthur Arnould, 
Antoine Arnaud, Assl, Blanchet, Brunei, Babick, Billioray, 
Bergeret, Cluvis Dupont, Eudes, Fortune, Geresme, Jourde, 
Lefrancais, Langevin, Malon, Ostyn, Pindy, Ranvier, Varlin, 
Vaillant . 21 

Members of the International Association— Amou- 
roux, Assi, Avrial, Beslay, Babick, Clemence, V. Clement, 
Chalain, Demay, Duval, Dereure, Frankel, Emile Gerardin, 
Jourde, Lefrancais, Langevin, Malon, Ostyn, Oudet, Pindy, 
Theisz, Varlin, Vaillant, Verdure 24 



Deduct Assi, Babick, Jourde, Ostyn, Pindy, Varlin, 
Vaillant, Lefrancais and Langevin found in both above lists. 



45 



Journalists— Arthur Arnould, Chardon, J. B. Clement, 
Cournet, Delescluze, Ferre, Flourens, Gambon, Paschal 
Grousset, Miot, Felix Pyat, Protot, Rigault, Tridon, Verdure, 
Jules Valles, Vermorel 17 

Deduct Verdure and Arnould found in preceding lists . 2 

15 
Speakers at Club and Public Meetings— Amouroux, 
Jules Allix, Champy, E. Clement, Demay, Descamps, Charles 
Gerardin, Ledroyt, Leo Meillet, Martelet, Ostyn, Oudet, 

Parisel, Puget, Regere, Rastoul, Urbain 17 

Deduct Amouroux, Demay, Ostyn and Oudet found in pre- 
ceding lists 4 

13 

Total 64 

Such an array of speakers and writers proba- 
bly no city has ever seen in its legislative repre- 
sentatives. Subsequent events proved many of 
the members to be of rare ability, but war was 
not their forte. The Commune's false hopes were 



MARCH, MONTMARTRK AND THK COMMUNK. 39 

soon exposed, as well as its inability in what 
proved to be its principal business — the war 
against the Assembly. 

The election of March 26tli, established in 
Paris the largest legitimate representative govern- 
ment in France. The Assembly elected to repre- 
sent the sentiment as to the continuance of the 
war, and in the event of non-continuance, to 
establish a peace agreement, had discontinued 
hostilities, surrendered territory and arranged for 
the peace indemnity. For its further existence 
there was no logical reason, except in the usurp- 
ation of the powers of a National legislative body. 

The advent of the Commune was celebrated 
with festivities on the 28th. Cannon salutes, mili- 
tary parades, bands playing and thousands singing 
the Marseillaise. Speeches were made in the 
square in front of the Hotel de Ville. Very large 
bodies of military surrounded the place of the 
celebration, and cannon were trained to sweep the 
boulevards. The tri -color alternated with the red 
flag in the square, evidently a concession to the 
Moderate Party.* 

*0ne author says : "The Commune was inaugurated at the Hotel 
de Ville on the 28th with considerable ceremony. Tho gate below 
the clock-tower was hung with red, blue and green drapery, whilst 
the statue of Henry IV above was concealed with a crimson curtain. 
A platform ornamented with a bust of a female figure representing 
the Republic had been erected in front of the building, and on it 
were placed arm-chairs for the accommodation of the Committee 
Cannon were drawn up on the square, which was also occupied by 
about 20,000 National Guards in close ranks. Other battalions 
waited in the adjacent streets and on the quay At four o'clock 
Citizen Assi rose and announced that the power of the Central Com- 
mittee had transpired and was now transferred to the Commune. He 
then read aloud the names of the Councilors elected. Cries of "Long 
Live the Republic " were raised, the trumpets sounded, drums beat, 
and caps were waved in the air. About four o'clock salvos were fired 
from the Hotel de Ville, and answered by the guns at Montmartre. 
This cannonade created considerable alarm among the inhabitants, 
who imagined that the troops of Versailles had arrived at Paris, or 
that the Prussians had returned to restore order. All the National 
Guards present, to the number of 60,000, then marched past the dais 
on which the Committee was seated. In the evening the Arc de 
Triomphe, barracks, and principal public buildings were illuminated." 



40 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

^ho^ Journal Officiel oi the Commune on March 
30th published the following as the appointees 
to committees. 

Executive— Vskillant, Duval, Eudes, Tridon, Lefrancais, Felix Pyat, 

Bergeret. 
jPma?ice— Jourde, Varlin, V. Clement, Beslay, Regere. 
Military— Dnvsil, Flourens, Pindy, Eudes, Bergeret, Chardon, Ranvier. 
Justice— Protot, Ranc,* Leo Meillet, Ver^nort 1, Ledrolt, Babick. 
Police— Rigault, Ferre, Assi, Cournet, Oudet, Chalaln, Gerardin. 
Subsistence— Ostjn, Clement, Dereure, Champy, Parisel, Emile 

Clement, H. Fortune. 
Industry and Exchange— Frankel, Malon, Theisz, Dupont, Avrial, 

Loiseau-Pinson, Eug. Gerardin, Puget. 
Exterior Relations— Fascha.! Grousset, Delescluze, Ranc, Ulysse 

Parent, Arthur Arnould, Ant. Arnould, Ch. Gerardin. 
Public Service— Ostyu, Billioray, J. B. Clement, Mardelet, Mortier, 

Eastoul. 
Education— Jules Valles, Doctor Goupil, Lefevre, Urbain, Albert 

Leroy, Verdure, Demay, Doctor Robinet. 

A classification by occupation of members of the Commune : 
" Among the members of the Commune there were 12 journalists, 4 
common schoolmasters, 4 barristers, 2 apothecaries, 5 painters, 2 architects, 
2 engineers, 6 clerks belonging to commercial houses or to Government 
.fficies, 1 sculptor, 2 tradesmen, 1 journeyman jeweler, 1 journeyman carver, 
1 journeyman printer, 2 journeyman bookbinders, 2 journeymen dyers, 2 
journeyman shoem s.kers, 1 journeyman hatter, 5 journeymen in the en- 
gineering service, 1 tinker, 1 basketmaker, 1 joiner, 1 cashier, 1 hairdresser, 
and 3 proprietors. The three last-mentioned were the citizens Theodore 
Regere de Montmore, who owned some small lands in the south of France; 
Pottier, the proprietor of a large bathing establishment near the Bank; 
and the Commandant Brunei. The well-known members of the Commune 
were M. Felix Pyat, the editor of the Vengeur; M. Ranc, a functionary 
of the Gambetta Government at Tours and Bordeaux; Gustave Flourens, 
one of the heroes of the movement of October 31st, and son of a savant 
of the Institute; M. Protot, an advocate; M. Leo Meilet, a Mayor, 
who had been very influential in obtaining the release of General Chanzy, 
and who received the thanks of the Assembly for his efforts in that cause; 
M. Paschal Grousset, the young Corsican whose challenge to Prince Pierre 
Bonaparte, in January. 1870, led to the death of his representative, M. 
Victor Noir; M. Arthur Arnould, formerly a writer in the Marseillaise; M. 
Jules Valles, of the Diable a Quatre;M.. Delescluze, a prominent Red Repub- 
lican; and M. Ulysse Parent, a young man of fortune, who had for some time, 
been on intimate terms with the revolutionary party. The great majority 
of the Communal administrators were persons of humble birth; but these 
belonged to the educated circles, and were men with positions to lose."— 
"The Place Vendome and La Roquette," by Abbe Lamazou. 

* Ranc resigned April 7, declaring his "disapproval upon several impor- 
tant points as to the direction which has been given the Commune move- 
ment. * * Not wishing to create dissension, I decide upon retiring. I 
return to the ranks, and once more become a simple soldier of Paris, of the 
Commune and of the Republic." 



MARCH, MONTMARTRK AND THEJ COMMUNK. 4 1 

No permanent president was elected in the 
Communal sittings. That official was selected 
from among the members at each meeting. The 
intention was not to have one person permanently 
hold a position of such authority and responsibility. 

At the election of the Commune the Committee 
Central was supposed to have finished its duties, 
and its continuance in special functions made the 
Commune's duties more complicated and less 
likely to proper observance. 

A Sub-Committee Central in the Commune 
was formed for the purpose of directing the 
Federates. This Committee consisted of Assi, 
Cluseret, Bergeret, Henry, Babick, Avoinejr., 
Avrial, Maljournal, Duval and Geresme. 

About 2,000 cannon including those in the 
forts, were at the disposal of the Commune; the 
Federates actually under arms were probably 
125,000, but more than this were available. Their 
numbers has been variously stated from 125,000 
to 300,000 men. The Assembly's forces were com- 
paratively weak in numbers, not trusted by their 
leaders. The districts of the country were invaded 
by the agents of Thiers, inviting assistance. The 
days next following the election of the Commune 
were busy ones for the Versaillese, who were 
aware of the strong feeling among the Parisians 
in favor of an attempt to capture the Assembly's 
capital. 

The number of persons who left Paris during 
the ten days ending the 30th of March was 
estimated at upwards of 160,000. 



42 the: PARIS COMMUN]^. 

IV. 
War — The Events of April 



On April ist Thiers declared war and firing 
was begun by the Versailles forces. The troops 
at the command of the Assembly now comprised 
about 100,000 men, 50.000 of whom had been 
gathered together from various sources since 
March 20th. By vote in the Assembly each depart- 
ment was called upon to furnish a regiment, to be re- 
cruited as rapidly as possible from old and trusty 
soldiers, and forwarded at once to Versailles. 
These recruits were to receive a franc and a half a 
day. "Brittany furnished a small contingent of 
troops immediately on the call of Thiers for pro- 
vincial support of the Assembly. These troops 
fought under a white flag, each wore on his breast 
the heart of Jesus in white cloth and their cry 
was " L,ong live the King"." The prisoners re- 
turned from Germany furnished large additions. 
Bismarck's influence did not cease in French 
affairs when the peace treaty was signed. He 
consigned the prisoners to Thiers in quantities 
just sufiiciently large to keep the Versaillese in 
dependence upon him. 

The Commune's members were directed to 
take up the work of the local government of the 
districts which had elected them, in addition to 
their duties in the central body. 

The Military Committee of the Commune 
issued a proclamation in which it said: "The 



WAR — THE EVKNTS OF APRIl,. 43 

Royalist conspirators have attacked, our moderate 
attitude notwithstanding. Our duty is to defend 
the city against this wanton aggression." 

Rigault ordered the arrest of the policemen 
who were not carrying out the Commune's orders. 
The gates were closed to the further exodus of the 
bourgeoisie, who were hastening out of the city. 

The "Assistance Publique " which had head- 
quarters opposite the Hotel de Ville, and man- 
aged estates and collected c moneys for the 
hospitals of Paris, on April ist, smuggled out of 
the city no less than 75,000,000 francs. The 
money and securities were hidden in sacks and 
and removed through the gates in potato carts. 
A few days later the Jesuits made an attempt to 
get off with 400,000 francs in strong boxes, but 
they were not successful, for the money was seized 
at the Lyons railway station. 

Henri Rochefort, through his journal, the Mot 
(T Ordre, demanded the demolition of the statue of 
Marshal Ney, the first Napoleon's famous ofiicer. 
"The Government of the National Defence had 
thrown Napoleon's statue into the Seine, why 
should his servant's statue continue to commemo- 
rate the First Kmpire?" 

The capture of Versailles was now being con- 
sidered by the Commune. There seems to have 
been fully as much debate upon the propriety of 
the attempt as upon the probability of its success. 
This project was the cause of rancorous discus- 
sions in the Commune's sittings for many days. 
The meetings had now been made secret, though 
the general proceedings were made known to the 
public through proclamations and through the 
Journal Officiel. There seems to be little doubt 
but that the Assembly's agents were, to a large 
extent, aware of the Commune's proceedings at 



44 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

all times. Cluseret and Budes had been appointed 
Delegates of War. 

The opening of extensive hostilities outside 
the city occurred April 2d. The Federates had 
erected some fortifications at Neuilly with the in- 
tention of stopping the expected advance on Paris. 
General Vinoy, from Fort Valerian, sent a depu- 
tation to demand the Federates' withdrawal. 
There was an altercation and Dr. Pasquier, one of 
the deputation from the fort, said to have been 
unarmed and carrying a flag of truce, was shot 
and killed at the bridge of Courbevoie. He was a 
favorite with the gend'armes, who swore to avenge 
him. His death greatly complicated matters, and 
undoubtedly, added much to the unexampled 
atrocities of the Versaillese toward their prisoners. 
It was a most unfortunate affair, the details of 
which have never been clearly shown. The 
Federates claimed they believed the doctor to be a 
spy, and that he acted as if about to draw a re- 
volver when shot. After the killing of Dr. Pasquier 
a general action took place. The regulars brought 
up to support the Versaillese gen d'armes were 
tempted by a body of Federates, who turned the 
butts of the guns towards the advancing soldiers 
of the line; when the latter arrived in position, 
they fired a volley into the unresisting ranks of the 
Federates, who were thus rudely awakened from 
their dream of a friendly agreement with the 
opposing forces. The Federates, successful in 
withstanding the attack on their barricades, fol- 
lowed the retreating foe, and encountered the 
Pontifical Zouaves, headed by Colonel Charrette, 
and some other Versaillese reinforcements. ^ The 
Zouaves advanced to the charge with cries of 
''Long live the King," a singular war cry for 
soldiers of a "Republic." Their advance was so 



WAR — THE EVENTS OF APRII.. 45 

valorous and so well sustained by the regulars, 
that the Federates gave way and were finally de- 
feated, after two hours' sharp fighing. , They were 
driven from Courbevoie and the bridge at Neuilly, 
and finally into the city, all the while being sub- 
jected to the fire of cannon from field guns and 
from Fort Valerien, and were also mowed down by 
the mitrailleuses of the Assembly's troops. The 
shells from Valerien fell among the combatants 
as they fought during the Federates' retreat, kill- 
ing and wounding both pursuers and pursued. The 
Federates had no artillery in this action and com- 
plained bitterly of being obliged to battle under 
such circumstances. The Versaillese captured 
five prisoners — one a lad of 15, all of whom they 
murdered in cold blood. 

The Times correspondent reported that Gen- 
eral Vinoy had personally ordered the killing of 
all National Guards captured. 

The greatest excitement now pervaded the 
exasperated Federates and the people of Paris. 
The huge body of soldiers was anxious to fight. 
Military afi'airs were in a very unsystematic condi- 
tion. There was no chief commander, that office 
having been abolished, it being believed that its 
continuance carried too great a centralization of 
power. 

Preparations for an advance on Versailles 
now occupied the energies of the Military Com- 
mission. Their haste was great, as they were 
driven by the heat of an excited populace, and 
surrounded by thousands of Federates, enraged 
by the repulse at Neuilly, and eager for an oppor- 
tunity for retaliation. The Commune's plans, 
such as they were, had been so quickly acted on 
that on the morning of the 3d, shortly after mid- 
night, there issued from the city three divisions 



46 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

of the Federate forces, commanded by Duval, 
Bergeret and Eudes. The combined force is 
variously stated, but probably 65,000 men were in 
the ranks. Each division took a separate road 
with the intention of concentrating en route for 
Versailles. Rossel, who was chief of a legion, 
ordered his men to retreat before fighting began, 
alleging the ill condition of his troops and the 
lack of proper arrangements regarding supplies. 
Furious fighting took place on all the routes. 
General Duval, of the left division, by the lament- 
able lack of discipline, and the disaster on the 
right, was left unsupported. After a valorous 
effort he was obliged to surrender with about 
1,500 men and General Vinoy asked the of&cers 
to step forward. General Duval and two other 
officers responded and saluted; they were at once 
stood up against a house and shot to death by 
order of Vinoy, contrary to the agreement of 
surrender. Their bodies were then thrown into 
a ditch.* 

Eudes was commanding the center column, 
the largest of the three, said to have contained 
35,000 men. He met so vigorous an opposition as 
to completely disorganize his troops, who were 
routed, leaving many dead on the field; the Ver- 
saillese took some prisoners. Several of the 
cannon brought with the Federates were hurried 
into place to reply to the artillery fire of the 
enemy, when it was discovered that the projectiles 
at hand were of the wrong calibre. 

Bergeret and his officers were fancifully dec- 
orated with ribbons and gold laces. Bergeret, 
who is said to have been too un wieldly to ride on 

* Several authors endeavor to conceal this murder by saying that Duval 
was killed in the battle, exhibited great bravery, etc. Fetridge says: "General 
Duval was killed the first day at Chattilon. * * General Henry was sent 
to Versailles. The Versailles papers speak highly of the former's bravery." 



WAR — THE HVENTS OF APRIL. 47 

horseback, accompanied his troops in a victoria 
drawn by two horses. His division marched from 
the Porte Maillot directly past and in range of Fort 
Valerien. The fort had been reinforced during 
the night by a strong body of Versaillese, and the 
Federals apparently believed, as they foolishly 
declared, that the fort would not fire on them.* 
This division was allowed to partially pass before 
a heavy fire of cannon, and mitrailleuses was 
opened upon them. The center of the column 
was demoralized and the rear retreated. Flourens' 
division, which passed to the north of the fort, 
had not been fired on, advanced, and was engaged 
by the enemy at Reuil. 

Flourens, with 3,000 or 4,000 men, was pressing 
back the Versaillese, when a whole army corps 
which had been concealed, was encountered 
and the Federates were defeated and scattered. 
Flourens and his aide-de-camp, Cypriani, were 
surrounded in a house in which they had taken 
refuge. Flourens, with a pistol, wounded one of the 
party who invaded the apartment where he was 
concealed. Captain Demarest rushed in and 
instantly killed Flourens by a stroke of a sabre 
which cleft his head open. Demarest, for this 
act, received the Cross of the Legion of Honor 
from the hands of Thiers. Cypriani was taken 
prisoner and sent to Versailles . 

*It has been unhesitatingly stated by friends of the Commune that the 
leaders had deceived the body of the Federates by telling them that Fort 
Valerien was in the hands of the Commune. 

" On the afternoon of April 3d, a body of several hundred women gath- 
ered at the Place de la Concorde, and set out for Versailles in imitation of 
those who marched upon the same place in the time of Louis XVI, They 
paraded up the Champs Elysees, wearing the bonnet rouge and singing the 
Marseillaise. Whenever they met an omnibus they stopped it, caused the 
passengers to dismount, and took possession themselves. They were in 
charge of an old woman, 60 years of age, who mounted an omnibus, dis- 
played the red flag and gave the word of Qomma,nd."— Washburn. 



48 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

Misleading messages were circulated in the 
city, most of them declaring great successes by the 
Federates.* 

Flourens was one of the foremost revolutionary leaders and 
vigorous agitators of his day. Huge festoons of gold lace, gaudy 
ribhons, hats of most singular designs fancifully ornamented, were 
much favored by some of the leaders, Flourens among them, whose 
military capabilities were not of an order to well stand the attention 
which their equipage attracted Flourens was aa ofBcer in the 
revolt in Crete against the Turks in the Levant. 

" Gustave Flourens was an accomplished scholar and a man of 
much intelligence, but he early imbibed those revolutionary ideas 
which in the end cost him his life." 

" Flourens had begun life with every prospect of being a distin- 
guished scientist. His father, Pierre Flourens, had been perpetual 
secretary of the Academy of Sciences and a professor in the College 
de France, in which his son succeeded him when he was barely 
twenty-one. His first lecture, on the "History of Man," created a 
great impression; but in 1864 he resigned his professorship, and 
thenceforward devoted all his energies to the cause of the oppressed. 
In Crete he fought against the Turks. He was always conspiring 
when at home in Paris ; even when the Prussians were at its gates 
he could not refrain. He was the darling of the Belleville popula- 
tion, whom in times of distress and trial he fed, clothed and com- 
forted. Sometimes in prison, sometimes in exile. "He was a mad- 
man, but a hero, and towards the poor and the afflicted as gentle as 
a sister of charity," said one who knew him."t 

The demonstration against Versailles was 
continued in a desultory manner on April 4th, some 
reinforcement being forwarded to the Federates, 
and also to the Versailles troops. The result 
was a disastrous defeat for the Commune's forces, 

At 3 o'clock a courier passed by the Arc de Triomphe on his way to the 
Hotel de Ville, announcing to the crowd that Flourens had entered Ver- 
sailles at th<» head of 40.000 men— that they had captured one hundred 
deputies, and M. Thiers was a prisoner ! 

Some one suggested that "there were not over 20,000 men who went 
out this way " 

" Where did he get the men ?" 

"Oh, he has them!" and "General Bergeret fought like a tiger. He 
had two horses killed under him. " 

" Before him you mean," shouted one of the crowd, " as he went out in 
ft victoria." 

■• — '■-, I Lfttimer. 



WAR — THK BVKNTS OF APRII,. 49 

in some parts of the field a rout. Ranvier, how- 
ever, had supplied Fort Issy with several cannon 
which contributed greatly to the city's defence 
thereafter. An important factor in the vanquish- 
ing of the Federates was the lack of attention 
paid to the distribution of ammunition and sup- 
plies. Artillery ambulances and ammunition 
wagons were *' everywhere except where they 
were wanted." On the 4th the Federates cap- 
tured 250 of the Versaillese troops, losing about 
100 of their own men, including two commandants 
of battalion. 

General Gallifet, of the Versaillese, dis- 
tinguished himself on the 5th by bloodthirsty 
threatenings and by ordering the killing of 
Parisians. The character of this exceptionally 
sanguinary Versaillese commander will be ex- 
hibited in the account of his actions to be found 
in a subsequent chapter.* 

The death of Flourens was the signal for out- 
bursts of furious invectives by the Parisians 
against the Versaillese. His killing was de- 
nounced as assassination, and there was immedi- 
ately organized a corps of independent soldiery 
styling themselves "Avengers of Flourens," 
with the avowed purpose of revenging his death 
in every possible manner. In Versailles the news 
of his demise was received with unconcealed joy, 
and so important was he considered to the uprising 
by some of the Assembly's supporters, that they 
declared the revolution practically defeated with 
his death. The honors which greeted the slayer 
of Flourens show that his death was regarded as of 
great assistance to the Versaillese cause. 

*Thi3 Gallifet, ''the kept man of his wife, so notorious for her 
shameless exhibitions at the orgies of the Second Empire," went, during 
the war, by the n»me of the French "Ensign Tistol"— Address 0/ Int. W.A. 



50 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

The Military Commission displaced Bergeret 
and Eudes from their commands. Cluseret was 
appointed in Bergeret's place. LuUier, in the 
excitement escaped from prison and gathered a 
band of personal followers about him, whose 
independent action served only to embarrass the 
Commune, who still hoped to use lyuUier's sup- 
posed military ability. lyullier addressed a letter 
to Henri Rochefort, in which he said that he had 
been "the victim of machinations," that he was 
now surrounded by 200 resolute men; that he 
carried three loaded revolvers, and was resolved 
to break the head of anyone who might come to 
arrest him. He was again sent to prison after the 
Federates finally withdrew from the advance 
on Versailles. Assi was committed to prison for 
questioning the powers of the Commune to take 
aggressive action against Versailles. 

The Assembly at this time evidenced the most 
determined efforts to stamp out all Communist 
support in Versailles. Those who avowed any 
sympathy or friendship for the National Guard or 
for the Commune were said to have been killed 
by men hired for that purpose. 

Garibaldi sent the Committee Central a letter 
containing a choice assortment of advice, but 
declining the proffered post of Commander of the 
Army of Paris. 

The Communal uprising at Marseilles was the 
strongest outside Paris. * A manifesto was issued. 
On April 4th the Assembly's troops captured 
the Marseilles railway station, defeating the 

*In part it said: "We want the establishment of the Republic by Republican 
institutions. We want unity of political guidance, with a constituent 
Assembly, and a Republican Government the offspring- of that Assembly, 
both having their seat in Paris, We want decentralization of the authorities, 
with autonomy of the Commune, while confiding to the Municipal Council 
elected by each large city its administrative and municipal belonging's. 
The institution of Prefectures is fatal to liberty. We want the establish- 



APR II, — THK EVENTS OF WAR. 5 1 

National Guard, three of whom they took prisoners 
and immediately shot. Later in the day severe 
fighting took place, resulting in the killing 
and wounding of over 200 persons. By evening 
the Versaillese were in full possession of the city. 

The Commune was declared in Lyons, Nar- 
bonne, Toulouse and St. Etienne, and was only 
subdued in each instance by loss of life.* 

Elisee Reclus was captured while making a 
reconnaissance at Chatillon. 

The funeral of those killed in the battles of 
the days next previous took place on April 6th . 
The ceremonies were not of a religious character, 
but were appropriate and impressive. Five 
members of the Commune were chief mourners. 
Delescluze pronounced a funeral oration at the 
grave. More than 200,000 people attended the 
ceremonies at Pere la Chaise cemetery. 

The unparalleled action of the Versaillese in 
the murdering of prisoners, which had been a 
marked feature of the victories of April 2d, 3rd and 
4th, exasperated the Communal authorities, who 
attempted to stop further killings of this kind by 
immediately seizing M. Darboy, Archbishop of 
Paris; M. Deguerry, Cure of the Madeleine, and 

nient of the Republic by the federation of the National Guard over the 
whole breadth of our country. But, above all things, we want what Mar- 
seilles wants. If the G!o\ernment having its seat at Versailles had con- 
sented to dissolve the National Assembly, whose mission had expired, and 
transferred the seat of government to Paris, we shoiild not ask such 
guarantees." 

*Letus look back for a moment to the twenty-two years ending 1S70, and 
think of the treason of the Provisional Government of 1848, of the treasoti 
and brutal tyranny of the Constitutional Assembly, and of the National 
Assembly which followed, the slaughter of tens of thousands of the working 
classes, and the murder, or imprisonment and exile of all the leaders of the 
people; the treason, the perfidy, and the bloody massacres of Louis Napoleon, 
and his career of shameless tyranny, ending in the humiliation of France; the 
usurpation and treason of the so-called government of National Defence, and 
of the Assembly elected to ratify the conditions of peace; remembering all 
these, need w^be surprised at the revolt of the people of Paris, of Lyons, 
and of Marseilles against usurpation, and their determination to raise the 
banner of the reimhlic. —SJcetchley, 



52 TH^ PARIS COMMUNE. 

others of the notable ecclesiastics of Paris.* 
These were held as hostages, and many radical 
journals advised their death in reprisal for the 
prisoners killed.f 

The law of reprisals has always been sanc- 
tioned during war; its effects have been for the 
most part, bad, entailing upon innocent persons a 
violent death; and, arousing all the vengeful feel- 
ings of the combatants, has prolonged the rancor 
of war and extended the area of death. It is 
questionable whether the threats of reprisals had 
any good effect on the Versaillese. The soldiers 
of the Assembly were constantly gaining ground, 
and it has never been shown that the Versaillese 
government dared to discourage their methods, 
so long as the end desired was being accomplished; 
in fact, every official document praised, and not 
one ever carried a word of rebuke or caution to 
the troops. 

There was, moreover, a hatred engendered in 
the soldiers returned from Germany by the open 
contempt with which they were held by the 
Parisians, who had not forgotten Metz and Sedan , 
nor forgiven their capitulation. The troops with 
which Bismarck furnished the Assembly, were con- 
tinually referred to as "capitulards." 

Whatever may have been the sentiments of the 
German authorities toward the Commune in its 
early days, it was evident that at this time there 

*Lagorde, grand vicar of Mgr. Darboy, was paroled " on his honor," 
and sent to Versailles as a messenger to negotiate the exchange 
Darboy and others for Blanqui. He not only failed in his errand, but never 
returned, though before going he declared he would return " even to face 
death itself." 

tThe Journal Officiel on the 7th contained the following, part of an 
Address to the citizens of Paris '* We have hostages in our hands. Let the 
Commune issue a decree and let its men act. For every head of a patriot 
which falls under the hands of the Versailles authorities, let that of a 
Bonapartist, Orleanist or Legitimitist roll in the dust as a reply." 



WAR — run kvknts of aprii,. c-j 

iii' ^'^ 

was a complete understanding between the Assem- 
bly's agents and the Prussian military chiefs.* 

Cluseret now ordered all men, married or 
single, between and including the ages of 19 and 
45 to join in the defence; those of 17 and 18 years 
of age could volunteer to the service. This was 
unwelcome to a large number of the inhabitants, 
either neutrals or Versailles sympathizers. 

The Journal Officiel ( on the presence of the 
Due d'Aumale in France) said: "Society owes 
but one duty to princes — death; it is only bound 
to observe one formalit}^ — identity." 

On Good Friday, the 7th, the defences at 
Neuilly, which had been strengthened, were 
attacked and after furious fighting, the Federates 
were driven from the stronghold. This gave to 
the Versaillese a strong and nearer position to the 
city. Colonel Bourgoin died while at the head 
of the troop defending a barricade. Bourgoin 
was formerly aide-de-camp to Flourens when the 
latter was in the insurrection in Crete against 
the Turks. 

There are slight indications that the Prussians were friendly to the up- 
fisiner in its early days. 

Some time after the suppression of the Commune, the ConstiUctionnel 
alluded to a letter addressed by the Prussian authorities to the Communal 
War Department. This letter offered considerable quantities of flour, chasse- 
pots, and bayonet-sabres, at certain stipulated prices. A sample of the pro- 
posed flour was enclosed. 

Some authorities insist that Thiers wished the Germans to re-occupy 
Paris immediately after the Commune's election, but that Bismarck had no 
wish for a possible re-opening' of hostilities, which might result from the re- 
volt of the people throughout France at such action. It was understood that 
the war loan to France was not to be paid until the pacification of Paris. 

The Address of International asks : " Now, is it true or not— 

1. That the business was so managed that a consideration of several 
hnndred millions was secured for the private benefit of Thiers, Jules Favre, 
Ernest Picard, Pouyer-Quertier, and Jules Simon ? and — 

2. That no money was to be paid down until after the " pacification " of 
Paris ? " 

*The entire concord which existed between the Thiers Government and 
the German military authorities is shown by a proclamation issued by 
Prince Albert of Saxony, commander-in-chief of the Prussian 32d armv corps 
on April 6th. By this order the powers of the French civil authorities were 
declared entirely transferred to the German military commanders. The 



54 THK PARIS COMMUNK. 

The loss to the Federates was about 225 
killed and 43 wounded in this defeat. 

The artillery fire on both sides was rapid and 
destructive. Twentj^-one officers of the Versaillese 
were killed or wounded, Generals Besson and 
Pexhot among the number. The fighting at 
Neuilly was desperate and great courage was shown 
by both defenders and assailants. Hand-to-hand 
combats were common. The treatment of pris- 
oners by the Versaillese probably excelled in 
ferocity anything recorded of civilized warfare.* 
Huge numbers of spectators viewed the engage- 
ment from either side. 

The vicinity of the Arc de Triomphe, from 
which the battle could be seen, was thronged, 
notwithstanding the imminent danger from shells, 
now specially directed on this part of the city. 
The constant falling of shells in the streets of Paris 
occasioned much displeasure as well as loss of life. 
The Parisians, knowing their danger to be greatly 
decreased by falling on their faces on the approach 
of a shell, were often put through this exercise by 
false alarms from the gamins. The latter would often 
cry "a shell" for the express purpose of seeing 

military tribunals were made competent to try offences against the German 
troops or against " public order " and the German officers were instructed 
to order the delivery of arms and ammunition and to search for and remove 
them; and to prohibit such publications and meetings as may seem to them 
of a nature to produce or protract disorder. 

That this proclamation was aimed at the Commune and its sym- 
pathizers is plainly to be seen and that it was solicited by the Assembly's 
executive is equally evident. A more disgusting and lugubrious spectacle 
than these boasters of the Government of National Defense, whose mouths 
had been filled with "great swelling' words" of defiance a few months 

before, now crouching fawningly at the feet of their conquerors, is scarcely to 
be imagined. But in the face of the danger which threatened their class 
supremacy, the bourgeoisie of both nations forgot patriotism and national 
animosities and united in the attempt to crush the insurgent proletariat. 

* A writer saw the gen d'armes belonging to the Government forces 
bring some fugitives in; and these were treated with a severity which 
showed that they had met with no sympathizers. They were loaded with 
curses and abuse, struck with the butt-ends of rifles, and sometimes 
threatened with immediate death. On one occasion a general interfered to 



WAR — THE EVENTS OP APRIl,. 55 

some stout pedestrian lie down with alacrity and rise 
full of rage at his youthful tormenters, for whose 
amusement he had been reduced to such an 
undignified position. 

Ladislas Dombrowski succeeded Bergeret in 
the command of the West. 

Eudes had charge of the forts on the South, 
where fighting went on constantly. 

Bergeret had been given charge of Neuilly, 
and was imprisoned after the defeat. When 
questioned as to the strength of the defensive 
works at that place, and the possibility of its 
falling, his reply was: *'I have been there; I have 
fortified the place, and I defy the Versaillese." 
He is stated to have substituted his own 
authority for that of Cluseret on the night of the 
7th. There was a dispute between them after 
the arrest of Bergeret, who refused to acknowledge 
Cluseret's authority, declaring that he would not 

save the lives of his prisoners, saying that the proper treatment of such 
men was to despise them. Even the badly wounded were jeered at, and the 
captives generally were told that there was no need of ropes for binding 
them, as they would be shot on making the slightest attempt to escape. 

"There can be little doubt that the Versaillese troops behaved with great 
ferocity to their prisoners. Several independent observers testify to this 
fact; and it was said that it even caused a reaction in their favor to spring up 
amongst the people of the Royalist town where the Government and the 
army had their headquarters; though many at Versailles joined in the 
outrages committed on the captives. When the prisoners were brought in, 
M. Picard, the Minister of the Interior, walked from group to group, mak- 
ing jokes; and Madame Thiers, surrounded by a hevy of ladies, sat looking 
on in a balcony of the Prefecture. Henry, (who a few days afterwards 
escaped, and got back again into Paris) produced a considerable effect He 
was young, handsome and manly, and conducted himself with courage and 
dignity. But for the most part 'it was a miserable sight; and the treatment 
of the Communist prisoners undoubtedly did much towards embittering a 
conflict which was not at all wanting in heat and venom."— CasseK. 

In consideration of the unexampled treatment of prisoners by the 
Versaillese, the citizens of Paris were addressed by the Communal author- 
ities in a proclamation which began:— 

" Versaillese do not wage war against you like civilized men, but like sav- 
ages. The Vendeans of Charettc, the agents of Pietri, shoot the prisoners, and 
massacre the wounded in the ambulances. Twenty times the wretches who 
dishonor the uniform of the Line have turned their muskets butt-end up- 
wards, and then traitorously fired upon our gallant men." 



56 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

''obey a man who fought to continue slavery in 
the United States." This display of ignorance on 
the part of Bergeret may be taken as an indication 
of his general knowledge. Had his military talents 
and bravery equalled his self-esteem and love of 
display, he would have been the Colossus of the 
Communal defence. Reproaching Bergeret and 
others, Cluseret issued his sensible address con- 
demning the increasing use of gold lace, etc., 
and pointed out to them: ''That as workingmen 
who have accomplished a great revolution, they 
should not blush for their origin; the movement 
had been made in the name of virtue against vice, 
of duty against abuse, of honesty against corrup- 
tion, and had triumphed for that very reason," and 
concluded by announcing that any officer who 
added embellishments to the regulation dress, 
should be sent before a Council of Discipline. 

The ecclesiastics were examined by Rigault 
and Dacosta. M. Deguerry was thus interrogated: 

' ' What is this trade of yours ? " 

" It is not a trade; it is a profession, a moral 
ministry which we undertake for the amelioration 
of souls." 

"Ah, that is all blagues. We want to know 
what stories you tell the people." 

" We teach them the religion of Our I^ord 
Jesus Christ." 

' ' There are no Lords. We don't know any 
Lords," said Rigault. 

Archbishop Darboy was conducted to the 
ex- Prefecture of Police and brought before Raoul 
Rigault, who asked his name. 

" My children," — replied the Archbishop. 

" Citizen," interrupted Rigault, "leave off that 
wheedling and familiar tone; you are not before 



WAR — THS EVENTS OF APRII.. 57 

children — we are men. You are in the presence of 
a magistrate. What is your profession ? " 

** I am a servant of God." 

' ' Where does he live ? ' ' interrogated Rigault . 

** Everywhere," responded the priest. 

"Send this man to the Conciergerie, and issue 
a warrant for the arrest of his Master, one called 
God, who has no permanent residence, and is 
consequently, contrary to law, living in a per- 
petual state of vagabondage," was Rigault's order. 

Other interrogations by Rigault and Dacosta 
to Archbishop Darboy were made, and when 
Darboy told them the churches and the furnish- 
ings of the churches belonged to the clergy or 
the church, the questioners did not exhibit much 
regard for an ownership in property gained by 
efforts which to them seemed neither useful nor 
instructive in the community. 

During these days a large number of ecclesias- 
tics were arrested, and the churches turned into 
sleeping places for the Federates. The churches, 
buildings and valuables were confiscated to the 
Commune. Many of the edifices were turned into 
lecture rooms and meeting places for the populace, 
l/ouise Michel and Paule Minck were among 
the most noted of the woman speakers, who ad- 
dressed the large congregations. Their influence 
was immense. 

The womarn who gained the most oonspicuous place in the revolt 
of 1871— Louise Michel— in the popular mind is a virago, bringing in her 
wake petroleum, dynamite and destruction. In reality, a simple- 
hearted woman of a mystic temperament, ready to sacrifice her life 
for an idea, and so generous that she often gave away her own clothes 
to supply the needs of those poorer than herself. She will be known 
as a thoroughly good, kind-hearted woman. Governess and school 
teacher, learned and energetic, her wonderful earnestness and vigor in 
public address and her humanitarian efforts in nursing the wounded 
endeared her to friends of the uprising. After the fall of the Com- 
mune, she was sentenced to the New Caledonia penal colony, where 



58 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

she immediately used her extraordinary talents to ameliorate the 
condition of the colonists and the education of the children. On her 
return from New Caledonia, she took up her residence in London, and 
acquired a high regard for the freedom vouchsafed by England. She 
wrote many historical novels, her "Memoirs," and several other 
literary works; also two dramas, "Nadine" and "Le Coq Rouge," 
both of which were successfully produced in Paris. Louise Michel 
was born at Vroncourt, in the Department of Upper Marne, in 1836. 
With blue, clear and expressive eyes, and a slow but well modulated 
delivery, speaking absolutely pure French, her voice for decades pro- 
claimed the tenets of her belief, which made her hated by the privi- 
leged classes in every country, and beloved by the proletarians 
throughout the world. 

There was no lack of orators among the sup- 
porters of the Commune, and they lost no oppor- 
tunity for preaching secular doctrines to the people. 

The fearless curiosity of the Federates and 
their audacious invasions of the precincts of the 
edifices belonging to the church, filled the 
priests with horror and indignation.* So long 
accustomed to be reverenced in all respects, 
their being placed on a par with ordinary mortals 
in regard to their property and their persons was 
an obnoxious surprise for these dignitaries. 

This lack of affection for the clergy, and the 
absence of respect for all things pertaining to 
religion, are marked features of the Commune. 
Indeed it is remarkable, that from a population bred 
in the association of church and state, a body of men 
so unanimous upon this subject could be elected. 
Their position was certainly the result of the work- 
ers belief in the alliance of the church and their 
oppressors, and a unanimous opinion as to the 
utter useless ness of rites, forms, ceremonies. 

The clergy are partly to blame for the irreligious attitude of many 
modern socialists. They have to j often made themselves the advocates ol 
conservatism simply as conservatism, regardless of all abuses which it em- 
braced. Tn countries where Church and State are connected, the clergy 
have been too often a sort of police, assisting the government to maintain 
existing institutions, and to oppose change, good or bad. They have favored 
the higher classes, upon whom their support has depended, and neglected 
theinterests of the poor and down-trodden.— iiicftarc^ T. Ely, 



WAR — THE EVENTS OF APRIL. 59 

or symbols. The priests were considered simply as 
parasitical members of the community. In several 
churches the following notice was posted : "This 
Shop to lyCt ! " The private property of the clergy 
was confiscated to the Commune, which procedure 
was much like that of the Romans in the 4th 
century, who wished to remove as much as possible 
tl;e taint of world liness and the cares of temporal 
possessions from those whose cares should only be 
for the spiritual welfare of the people. 

The actions of the Commune were proof posi- 
tive that they subscribed to the skeptical tenets 
which hold priests to be the advocates of human 
ignorance and a bar to the progress of the race. 

The following notice was posted on the closed 
doors of the church of St. Pierre, Montmartre : 

" Whereas, priests are thieves, and churches 
are haunts where the masses have been morally 
assassinated, the ex-Prefecture of Police orders 
the church of St. Pierre to be closed, and decrees 
the arrest of the ecclesiastics and ignorantins." 

(Signed.) ''Le Moussu'' 

Two Communal seals were affixed to the paper. 

An estimate made at the time indicated the 
number of the clergy in prison to be 300. 

Several churches and unoccupied houses were 
sacked by the independent military, whose opera- 
tions the Commune could neither advise nor punish, 
as their apprehension was almost impossible and 
their detention, trial or punishment were matters 
of secondary importance to the repelling of the 
Versailles. 

On April 7th a guillotine was set up and 
burned in the nth arrondissement,as an evidence 
of the detestation felt by the Paris populace for the 
murderous instrument of tyranny and despotism. 



66 THK PARIS COMMUNB. 

Cluseret was appointed Delegate to the 
Ministry of War on April 8th. 

A Versailles decree published on April 8th 
announced the appointment of Marshal McMahon 
to the command of the Assembly's troops. 

The Steele on the 8th contained an article in 
which it showed plainly the almost inevitable defeat 
of the Paris defence. Attention was called to the 
fact that the calibre of the guns defending the 
ramparts was of too light a character to success- 
fully exchange hostilities with the heavy siege 
guns being planted by the Versaillese. Referring 
to the operations of April ist-yth, the inability 
of the Federates to gain anything by the continu- 
ation of outside hostilities, was conclusively shown. 
The hope for aid from outside districts was indi- 
cated to be futile, as reports from emissaries of the 
Commune were not encouraging. The whole 
statement in the Steele showed a preception of the 
situation not exhibited by any of the other papers 
of the day. The article closed with an appeal for a 
conciliatory movement as the only hope to avert 
complete defeat for the Commune. 

Between the 2d and 9th days of April the 
losses of the Federates exceeded 7,000 men. 

The Chambers of Commerce of Paris repre- 
senting 8,000 merchants and traders, probably 
from business motives, attempted to bring about 
an amicable arrangement with the Versaillese. 
But they asked for the autonomy of Paris, of 
course without avail. 

The intolerance of the Assembly's represent- 
atives increased as their power extended. The 
workingmen who had been considered the proper 
defendersof the honor and interests of Paris against 
the Germans, were now denounced as criminals for. 



WAR— THS ^VKN'TS 01? At>Rlt. 6 1 

daring to defend the right of their city to social 
autonomy. 

Many deputations of various peaceably in- 
clined organizations tried to induce a cessation of 
hostilities, but Thiers, who now had military power, 
repulsed with increasing firmness any efforts 
toward reconcilation. It is said that he "received 
the delegations kindly." But the VersaiAese were 
determined to carry out the programme ^i fteath 
and disgrace marked out for all who had the 
temerity to oppose the Assembly, now supported 
by those military chieftains who had proved 
themselves unable to cope with a foreign invader, 
but who were ambitious to regain their forever- 
lost prestige, even by conducting a campaign of 
extirpation against a portion of their countrymen. 

There was a continual bombardment through- 
out the 9th and loth. A shell struck the Arc 
de Triomphe on the 9th, not doing much damage. 
The Federates made slight gains and occupied the 
village of Boulogne on the loth. 

M. Jecker, a Mexican banker, was arrested for 
trying to obtain a passport under a false name. 

M. Parisel, member of the Commune, was 
delegated to gain infermation regarding the 
preparation of explosives.* The chemist to whom 
Parisel applied for information, quietly communi- 
cated with the Versaillese, and by dilatory 
methods prevented the carrying out of some 
plans which might have been of assistance in the 
defence. 

By a sort of tacit agreement, hostilities were 
suspended on the night of the loth-iith. The 
Federates repaired Porte Maillot, now much 
damaged by the incessant cannonade. 

♦March. ....;. . ; ; . 



62 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

Religious services in the prisons were, on the 
nth, by the Commune, ordered discontinued. 

On the night of the nth a vigorous assault 
was made on Fort Vanves and another on Porte 
Maillot, both without accomplishing any measure 
of success. 

Porte Maillot was heavily bombarded on 
the 1 2th. The Federates made some gains in 
Neuilly, where the fighting was furious at times 
during the day. 

The destruction of the Vendome monument had 
been advocated by many of the most distinguished 
Frenchmen, among them A. Comte. M. Picard 
and others of the Government of the National De- 
fence had believed it incompatible with the 
overthrow" of the Second Empire to allow this 
staring statue of Imperialism to call to mind the 
murderous glory of the first Napoleon. Courbet, 
the painter, was a foremost advocate of its demo- 
lition. The Commune added the sentiment of Inter- 
nationalism to the anti-Imperialist feeling in those 
who grasped the reins of power after the fall of 
I,ouis Napoleon. 

April 1 2th the following decree was issued: 
"The Commune of Paris, considering that the 
Imperial column in the Place Vendome is a mon- 
ument of barbarism, a symbol of brute force and 
false glory, an affirmation of militarism, a negation 
of international law, a permanent insult cast by 
the victors on the vanquished, a perpetual attack 
on one of the great principles of the French 
Republic — Fraternity — decrees the column of the 
Place Vendome shall be demolished." 

On the 13th the fighting continued with little 
cessation in the environing villages, Neuilly being 
the scene of a warm engagement in the latter part 



APRIL — THK EVENTS OF WAR. 63 

of the day, but the evening showed little gain 
for either the Federate or Versaillese forces. 
In the artillery work of the day in connection 
with the forts, the Federates seem to have made a 
much better showing than usual. Cluseret's 
report to the Commune on this day was of a very 
cheerful character. A battery of the Federates at 
Trocadero Heights opened on Fort Valerien. and 
some shots were interchanged. 

Jaroslaw Dombrowski ( brother of General 
Dombrowski) and his corps were distinguished 
by capturing the Castle of Becon, and Vinoy was 
defeated when he attempted to recover it. 

Gustave Chaudey, accused of ordering the 
firing of January 226., on the National Guards 
from the Hotel de Ville, was arrested. 

The Convent of Picpus, two distinct build- 
ings — one occupied by monks, the other by nuns* 
— was invaded by Phillipe Fenouillat, Chief of 
Legion of the 12th arrondissement. The monks, 
13 in number, were arrested and taken to prison. 

*At the extreme «nd of the garden were three little huts, side by side, 
resembling white ant's nests; and when the convent was first occupied by 
the National Guards, each of these huts was tenanted by an old woman, en- 
closed in a wooden cage, like a chicken's pen. The buildings were six feet 
square by seven in height, with a slate roof, through which daylight was 
visible. The three old women were hope'ess idiots. " The Lady Superior," 
continued the account, "admitted, when firft questioned, that the three 
sufferers had lived in their hideous prison for i.ine years, in an atmosphere 
of stifling heat throughout the summer, and half-frozen with cold through- 
out the winter; ' but,' she added, ' they were idiots when they came.' The 
conductor of the inquiry replied that, if such were the case, it was illegal to 
have admitted them to the convent at all, and that, even supposing them to 
have been admitted, the place where they were found was not a fit dwelling- 
place for a dog. A key was discovered among her papers, labelled ' key of 
the great vault;' but where this great vault may be has not yet been found 
out. The Superior and her nuns keep a uniform and persistent silence upon 
the point; excavations have been made at different points in the garden, 
and under the hi^h altar of the chapel, but hitherto without effect." In an 
isolated building in the nuns' garden were found mattresses furnished with 
straps and buckles; also two iron corsets, an iron skull-cap, and a species of 
ra<:;k turned by a cog-wheel, apparently intended for bending back the body 
with force. "The Superior," said the Times correspondent, "explained 
that these were orthopaedic instruments— a superficial falsehood. The mat- 
tresses and straps struck me as being" easily accounted for; I have seen such 
things used in French midwifery, and in cases of violent delirium; but the 
rack and its adjuncts are justly objects of grave suspicion, for they imply a 



64 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

An investigation into the women's department dis- 
closed parts of human skeletons, instruments of 
torture and others for the procuring of abortion. 
Three women, in various stages of derangement, 
were confined in cage-like huts. The Communal 
authorities were convinced that relations existed 
between the monks and nuns not consistent with 
their profession, and that abortion and secret 
burials were the result of criminal proceedings, 
and that the forcible violation of women was also 
common in the institution. These charges were 
denied by the church authorities, as well as by 
the "respectable" portion of society. The con- 
clusions of the Communists have not been suc- 
cessfully controverted. The Church of St. Lau- 
rent also developed some extraordinary features 
for a religious institution. These developments 
made the populace, never too much enamored of 
the priests and their practices, still more vehe- 
ment in demands for their eviction from all property 
and public functions. 

M. Rochefort, in the Mot d'Ordre, said so far 
as the property of the church was concerned, " as 
Christ was born in a stable, the only property 
which the church should have is a bundle of 
straw." 

The Bank of France was summoned to give 
up the crown diamonds, the presence of which in 

use of brutal force which no disease at present known wonld justify. Ar- 
rived at the entrance gate, our guide nudged me, telling me in whispers to 
look at the old woman who was wandering about, followed by a jounger 
one, stooping from time to time to pick up a leaf, or rub her hands with 
sand and gravel. ' That is Soeur Bernardine,' he said, * one of the three 
prisoners of the wooden cages. She is the most sane in mind of the three, 
and we keep her here, under the care of one of our wives, to cheer her up. 
She is only fifty, though she looks past seventy. The other two have been 
removed, as they were rendered violent by the crowd and change of scene.' 
I passed close to her, and she looked up— a soft, pale face, with sunken eyea 
shaded by the frills of a great cap. She looked at me dazedly, without tak- 
ing any notice, and, stopping, again filled her hands with refuse coffee- 
grounds, wtiich she put into her mouth until prevented bj her 
companion," . 



WAR — THK EiVEN'l^S OF APRII,. 65 

the bank was indicated by documents in the pos- 
session of the Commune's officials. The depu- 
tation was told that the diamonds had been sent 
from Paris before the surrender, to keep them from 
falling into the hands of the Prussians. This ex- 
cuse, true or untrue, seems to have satisfied the 
Commune. 

In the early days of the struggle, the force 
of the Assembly was not of such magnitude nor 
loyalty but that the immense funds in the Bank 
of France could have won most of it, not only 
from the Versaillese, but to the defence of Paris. 
There probably never was a time but that the 
huge amounts of money and negotiable securities 
could have been so placed as to win from their 
allegiance the foremost of the opponents of the 
Commune, if we may judge by the financial and 
political records of most of them. It may be safely 
insisted that on no one point was the imbecility of 
the Commune so nakedly exposed as in their 
puerile conduct in allowing themselves to be so 
continually stultified by their soft-hearted agent 
and the bank officials. 

Funds there were in abundance, but the in- 
telligent courage to grasp and use them was not 
present. The hope that the National Guards 
in the bank would fraternize; the humane desire 
to prevent the fratricidal results of a forcible 
seizure; and a fear of bourgeois opinion, all held 
them from the taking of the deposits. These 
halting opinions were flagrant errors in the 
Commune.* 

The vigorous attack on Fort Vanves on the 
night of the i5th-i6th may be properly said to 
have been a failure, though a great loss of life was 
the result on both sides. On the i6th Eudes, 

•See Commune and the Bank. 



66 THB PARIS COMMUNE. 

commanding the forts on the South, reported 
to Cluseret: " Our Federals are heroes; they 
fought like lions; the victory is one with pride to 
be inscribed upon the banner of the Commune; 
Vanves was the center of the attack; the Governor 
of the Fortress of Vanves, Citizen I^eroux, de- 
serves special mention." The 86th battalion and 
Commandant I^eroux of Vanves were specially 
mentioned by Cluseret in the reports of the d^y. 

On the 15th, the Trocadero batteries, which 
were poorly manned, opened fire on Valerien and 
on Longchamps, where the Versaillese reserves 
were camped; the exceptionally fine marksman- 
ship of the gunners in the fort soon temporarily 
silenced them.* 

The fighting was heavy in Levallois; parts of 
the village were occupied by both armies. In this 
engagement the Federates made no gains, though 
assisted by mitrailleuses mounted on cars. 

Operations of the Assembly's force.now showed 
marked improvement; Marshal McMahon had 
organized his troops into three corps, commanded 
respectively by Generals Cissey, Ladmirault and 
Du Barial. Each corps w^as composed of three 
divisions. General Vinoy was given charge of the 
reserve, which was also in three divisions, and to 
which another division was subsequently added. 

The Versaillese were moving rapidly in the 
completion of works by which their troops might 
be sheltered in their advancing attacks upon 
the city's defences. 

* The establishment of the battery at Trooadero is said to have had a 
double purpose. To damage or silence Fort Valerien seemed its object, but 
the fact that it drew the fire of the fort on the district of Passy, which had 
refused to assist in the support of the Commune, gave rise to the belief that 
the battery had beein placed for that purpose. Great damage was done ip 
Passy by Valerien's shells; and after some days of cannonading,- the inhabi- 
tants, protested to the. Commander of the fort and the shells theiieafter w.ere 
much more infrequent. The Trocadero battery did little damage to the 
fort or to the enemy. 



WAR — THE Events of APRlt. 67 

At the station Colombes, where a severe 
engagement took place, the railway batteries pro- 
tected the retreat of a body of Federates which 
otherwise must have been cut off by Versaillese 
cavalry. 

On Sunday, the i6th of April, the Belgian 
legation was invaded by Federates. This unwar- 
ranted and impolitic proceeding apparently went 
unpunished, although the Jo2ir7ial Officiel declared 
the Commune's intention of bringing the offenders 
before a Council of War. 

Elections to fill 31 vacancies in the Commune, 
caused by resignation, etc., w^ere held April i6th, 
and called out less than half the vote of the last 
previous election. 

In this election 61,000 votes were cast in 
arrondissements which had on March 26th re- 
turned 146,000 votes. 

The election laws required an eighth of the 
votes for a candidate to elect; the smallness 
of the vote left six vacancies unfilled under this 
rule, and on April 17th the Commune by a vote 
of 26 to 13, declared elected those candidates re- 
ceiving the majority of votes cast. Twenty were 
elected, three — Menotti Garibaldi, (son of General 
Garibaldi ) Rogeard and Briosne never took their 
seats. 

Members o^ Committee Central -G. Arnold, Pettier, 
Viard ^ 

Committee of the 20 Arrondissements -A. Dupont, 
Cluseret, Johannard, Longuet, Pillot, Slcard 6 

Journalists -Vesinier, Andrieu, Longuet ..... 8 

Speakers at Club and Public Mestings— Tricquet, 
Dereure, SeraiUer, Philippe, Lonclas, Johannard, Durand., 

Pottier . . • • 8 

20 

Johannard, Durand. and Pottier also belonged tothe Ihter- 

ttational Association ^ 

Total 17 



6^ fat PARIS COMMUNE. 

On the 17th a Military Commission was in- 
stituted, with Rossel as President, with fiill 
powers of punishment from the death penalty 
downward. At a sitting of this Military Court 
Cluseret asked some questions, but was interrupted 
and told that he was now expected to answer 
questions, and he was immediately asked "Why 
some battalions on the ramparts had no shoes 
and had been fed on salt meat for 15 days ? " 

Unauthorized troops, ''Flourens Avengers," 
"Avengers of Paris," etc., attempted to hold place 
in the Commune's commissary, without being 
amenable to the discipline of the Federates. 
These guerrilla bands brought the Federates into 
general disrepute; for, while the latter confined 
its operations to searches and seizures of arms, 
provisions, etc., for the benefit of the defending 
forces, the irregular bodies foraged, consumed and 
destroyed, giving but little heed to any authority, 
and assisting, (with some exceptions,) but slightly 
in defensive operations. 

An attempt at systemization was now made 
in the official conduct of the Commune, the work 
of the committees originally selected not having 
been properly defined; but the results did not 
show much improvement. 

On the 17th an important engagement took 
place at Asnieres, in which the Federates were 
driven back, abandoning barricades and trenches. 
A rout ensued; many squads were cut off from the 
main force and captured by the Versaillese cavalry; 
one of the locomotive batteries was disabled by a 
cannon shot, and the railway track was blocked 
by the wreck. The pontoon bridge was cut 
while many had not yet crossed, and a large 
number lost their lives endeavoring to swim the 
"Seine, while many were killed and many taken 



WAR — THE EVENTS OF APRII,. 69 

prisoners. The Federates rallied under Dom- 
browski, and made a desperate attempt to retrieve 
the fortunes of the day. They were unsuccessful, 
though the charge was one of the most courageous 
recorded in the annals of war. 

The Versaillese under Colonel Davoust, Due 
d' Auerstadt, (a grandson of the great Napoleon's 
marshal of the same name ) carried the Chateau 
Becon. This action was made the subject of 
special mention by Thiers in a dispatch to the 
Sub-Prefects. 

General Van Pape, German Commander at 
St. Denis, speaking to a correspondent said the 
Prussians would not interfere unless the triumph 
of the Commune should jeopardize the payment 
of the indemnity.* 

On the 1 8th of April the " Union Republicaine 
of Paris" published an address condemning the 
Assembly for failing to give guarantees for the 
maintenance of the Republic or the establishment 
of Communal liberty. 

Little fighting was done on the i8th on 
account of heavy rain. Fort Valerien did some 
exceedingly effective cannonading. Many persons 
were injured in the city by the bursting of shells. 

On the 19th there appeared in the Journal 
Officiel, the Manifesto of the Commune, which had 
been prepared by a committee of five commissioned 
for that purpose. Pierre Denis, a journalist, and 
Delescluze are credited with its composition. The 

On April 4th Paschal Grousset addressed to General Fabrice some in- 
quires regarding the progress of the payment of the indemnities bj' the 
Assembly, and the probabilities of evacuation of some territory held by the 
Germans. This epistle was not answered by Fabrice. He turned it over to 
M. Favre, who visited at Rouen a few days after its receipt. Favre said he 
was "overcome with civilities" at the German headquarters by General 
Fabrice. On April 10th M. Favre read Grousset's communication to 
Fabrice before the Assembly. It was read in tones so undignified and with 
postures and gestures so grotesque as to cause great merriment among the 
m^mbers. Favre was ridiculed by the Gaulois for his attempts to bring, 
contempt upon Grousset, and said that Favre surpassed Frederic Lemaitre, 
the actor. 



70 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

doctrine of decentralization, the entire autonomy, 
of Communes, whether large or small, and some 
vague ideas of centralized representation by 
Communes were incorporated in the document. 
The Manifesto closed with these words: *'As for 
ourselves, Citizens of Paris, we have a mission to 
accomplish, a modern revolution, the greatest and 
most fruitful of all those which have illuminated 
history." 

Their economic and political surroundings, as 
well as their reasonable and honorable opinion 
that the conduct of war in civilization is disgrace- 
ful to all concerned, accounts in large degree for 
the wavering course and unscientific procedure 
in the offensive and defensive operations by the 
Communists in Paris. The conflicts between the 
contrary instincts of humanity and passion were, 
except in the last days, almost universally given to 
the milder attribute. A hope for reconciliation 
was, almost until the end, apparent in Paris. This 
ignis-fatuus was largely the result of the specious 
acceptance of negotiations by the Versaillese, 
who diplomatically considered and suavely de- 
layed all conciliatory plans. Every days' delay 
was for the Assembly's advantage. 

Deputations were sent out to solicit help from 
the other large cities; the imperfectness of the 
plans offered, the uncertain character of instruction 
to the Commune's representatives, and the growing 
strength of the troops at Versailles made this 
mission of no great ultimate value to the Parisian 
government. The amount of money placed at 
the disposal of this service has been stated at 100,000 
francs (almost $20,000). The imbecility of setting 
aside such a pittance when so much depended on 
this mission is not at variance with many other 
evidences of the continual oversight of the liberal 



WAR — THE K VENTS OF APRII.. 7 1 

programme which the funds of the Bank of France 
placed at the Commune's disposal. 

A correspondent of the Daily Neivs, writing on 
April 17th, said that private crime had wonder- 
fully diminished. " In such a state of society," 
he remarked, " it might be expected that in- 
dividuals would take advantage of public disturb- 
ance and the dislocation of authorit}^ to pursue 
their own private ends, robbing and killing at their 
pleasure. But here, on the contrary — it may be 
from terror — the people are so well behaved 
(putting their political passions out of ac- 
count) that I never felt more secure than I 
do now." 

*' The Communal Guards taken in arms were 
now being tried at Versailles. They were con- 
fined in cellars under the stables of the Chateau 
d' Artois, and their examination was conducted 
before a Judge of Instruction, who sat in a large 
room on the ground-floor of the barracks facing 
the chateau, and who was assisted by five younger 
magistrates. The treatment of these prisoners was 
characterized by all that disregard of fairness 
which is commonly observed in the proceedings 
of French courts. The Judge, in accordance with 
the habit of those functionaries in France, reviled 
the accused much as Sir Edward Coke reviled 
Sir Walter Raleigh on his. trial for high-treason. 
Coke, however, was not the Judge, but the pros- 
ecuting counsel; so that the case was not so bad, 
though bad enough. Some old men among the 
captured Communal troops asked permission to 
sit down. The Judge refused, and one of. the 
Assistant-Judges exclaimed, "Wretches who en- 
gage in such a cause as yours have no claim upon 
the indulgence of the authorities. Stand where 
you are, and let there be no shifting to either 



7? TH:e PARIS COMMUNK. 

right or left. We want to see your faces in all 
their ignominy of expression." "* 

On the 19th there was lively fighting at many 
points, particularly at Neuilly, Asnieres and Clichy. 

A body of Federates, bent on recovering the 
bridge at Neuilly, pushed a battery of six guns up 
within a short distance of the Versaillese at this 
point and opened fire on them unawares. This 
manoeuvre proved unfortunate for the Federates. 
They were charged furiously by superior numbers, 
lost their guns and fled. The cannon were turned 
against them, and they were mercilessly pursued 
to the gates, volleys of grape-shot being poured 
into their broken ranks as they ran. Their losses 
were terrible; each of the battalions engaged lost 
one-third of its men . This was one of the bloodiest 
battles and was most disastrous to the Federates. 
The ofiici aire ports of the Federate officers incharge 
were misleading as to the real character of the 
engagement, merely mentioning it as a sortie, but 
calling for 2,000 more men. 

On the 19th the Committee Central of the 
National Guard issued an address to the people of 
Paris and the Federates, which began by saying 
that ' ' false rumors of disagreement between 
the two powers had prevailed and that from that 
day the Committee Central entered upon its 
functions in the administration of war ! " 

Le Sociele demanded the impeachment of the 
Members of the Committee Central, and the sup- 
pression of the body, and the radical press in 
general seemed to be inimical to this Committee. 

A kind of armistice was observed at Neuilly 
on the 2oth, on behalf of the inhabitants, who, 
being afraid of issuing out of their cellars, lest 
they should be shot, ran great risk of perishing 

*Cassell. 



APRIL — THE KVENTS OF WAR. 73 

witli hunger. Indeed, it is said that some actually 
died in their subterranean retreats. 

An artillery duel took place on the 20th 
between Fort Valerien and the Federates at the 
Porte Maillot. As usual the former was much 
more accurate and effective in gunnery, and 
the intrepidity of the defenders of the gate has 
been the wonder of all acquainted with the 
extreme danger of the position. 

At the bridge of Clichy a sharp engagement 
took place, slightly favorable to the Federates. 
The Versaillese also made an unsuccessful attempt 
to seize the bridge at Asnieres, which was de- 
feated by the use of Federate field guns. 

A shot fell into and exploded the powder maga- 
zine of the Federates near the Porte d' Asnieres, 
doing great damage to persons and property. 

There were rumors of an attempt to over- 
throw the Communal Government, and four battal- 
ions of Federates were stationed in the Luxem- 
bourg as a precaution against any uprising which 
might be attempted. 

Dombrowski was chagrinned at the apathy 
shown by Cluseret; Rossel was disgusted with 
the latter's laxity of discipline and failure in the 
proper organizations of the commissary. All 
affairs connected with the war were in a highly 
unsatisfactory condition. Complaints to the 
Commune were incessant. 

A Commission for the Control of the War 
was appointed April 21st, consisting of Delescluze, 
Tridon, Avrial, Ranvier and Arnold. Bergeret 
was released from prison. Pyat sent in his resig- 
nation to the Commune, alleging dissatisfaction 
with its proceedings, Some of his colleagues ac- 
cused him of resigning to escape responsibility 
for the Commune's actions, which accusation, 



74 ^HB PARIS COMMUNE. 

judging from Pyat's general character, was prob- 
ably true. Delescluze here said that others dis- 
pleased with the detail work, would not desert, 
but " if necessary, find death at the ramparts de- 
fending the cause." 

Sharp quarrels were taking place in the 
Commune. Vermorel and Pyat exchanged heated 
words. Pyat was denounced as being the cause 
of the failure of the attempt to overthrow the 
government on October 31st. Vermorel charged 
Pyat with seeking to evade the results of the 
Commune's proceedings. Its formation had been 
advocated by Pyat, who had advised in his paper 
the most extreme measures. Pyat, whose threat 
to resign was the cause of these recriminations, 
decided to retain his seat. 

A Commission of Police Control was ap- 
pointed — Cournet, Ferre and Trinquet. Rigault, 
jealous of any infringement on his power as 
Prefect, resigned; Cournet was appointed in his 
stead, and Rigault was assigned to Cournet's 
place on the Commission of Control, which really 
left Rigault in power as before. 

The Executive Committee of the Commune 
was changed from its previous form, to that of 
nine members, one each from the Commissions, 
and the following delegates were named: 

Delegate of TFar— Cluseret. 
Finance— 3 oxjnu'E. 
Subsistence— YlAKD. 
Exterior Relations — GroUSSET. 
Labor and Exchange — Frankel. 
Justice — Protot. 
Public Service — Andrieu. 
7n/orma^.ioji— Valliant. 
General Surety — Rigault. 

A Committee of practical jewelers met at the 
Ministry of Finance to examine and estimate the 



WAR — THB EV:BNTS of APRIL. 75 

value of a number of sapphires and pearls found 
in the building. Two of the pearls were as large 
as pigeon-eggs, and the whole collection was 
estimated at many millions of francs. 

Twelve unfriendly journals were suppressed 
by the Commune. 

An advance of the Federates on the 21st 
at the Park of Neuilly seemed successful, the 
Versaillese falling back. The Federates, flushed 
with success, were pressing on, when the}^ were 
enfiladed by masked batteries of Gatling guns, 
which piled the road with the dead, and threw into 
the wildest disorder the troops who had escaped so 
imminent a danger. They fled to the barricades, 
and were met by the fixed bayonets of the 
Federate reserves. They again charged the 
murderous engines which no human line could 
overcome. Driven back, their retreat became a rout; 
it was with difiiculty they obtained admittance 
into the city, and that only by force at the St. 
Ouen gate. Wagon loads of the dead were brought 
in. Omnibusses and other conveyances were 
requisitioned for transportation of the wounded, 
whose number was enormous. 

This terrible slaughter was followed in the 
city by almost innumerable funerals, and the 
scenes of death and the mournful corteges were 
being felt as lessening the vigor of the Federates, 
who complained loudly of the unsystematic dis- 
tribution of troops, of ammunition and of supplies, 
blaming their ill-success upon the Commune and 
all subordinate authorities, and in many instances 
charging their commanders with betrayal. 

On the night of the 22d,an advance was made 
by the Versaillese, who threw large bodies of 
troops acro.ss the Seine above Clichy, intending tg 



76 THB .PARIS COMMUI^B. 

take, Clichy and Levallois, thus cutting off that por^ 
tion "of the Federates on the right from the balance of 
the army. Dombrowski, by a vigorous and skillful 
disposition and movement of his troops, check- 
mated this operation and proved himself to be 
vigilant as well as valorous. 

Skirmishes only were reported on the 23d. 

The Assembly now took measures to prevent 
even a desire for conciliation to be made public 
through publications of any kind in France.* It 
was thus made plain that it was not peace, but the 
downfall of Parisian autonomy that was desired. f 

Cluseret requested an armistice on the 24th to 
bury the dead and allow the escape of the non- 
combatant inhabitants of Neuilly. The Federates 
supposed the terms and date were understood, 
but they were fired on when they commenced 
peaceful operations, and suffered considerable 
loss; being pressed, a determined stand was 
made, and the fighting resulted in great loss of 
life but no advantage was gained either side. 

Thiers, during the negotiation looking to 
an armistice, said : "As soon as the Germans 
evacuate the forts on the North I shall bombard 
Paris; the legitimate authority must be upheld; 
the power of this calumniated Assembly shall be 
maintained at any cost." 

Thiers visited St. Denis on the 24th, and 
had a long interview with the Crown Prince of 
Saxony and General Fabrice; he informed them 
that the Versailles army numbered 150,000 men, 

*M. Dufaure, Minister of Justice, with the assent of the Assembly on 
April 23d, issued orders to the procurators of the provinces to proceed 
against all journalists inimical to the Assembly g-overnment. " Some," 
said M. Dufaure, "attacked the institutions of society openly and without 
reserve; others more dangerous still, impart to their criticisms a semblance 
of conciliation " It was evident that opposition or voices for conciliation 
would not be tolerated by the Assembly. 

tSee Modern Paris in another chapter. 



WAR — THE EVENTS OF APRIT.. 77 

and that they would be thoroughly prepared by 
the ist of May. 

On April 17th Thiers had issued a proclama- 
tion in which he said: " We persist in our system of 
temporization for two reasons, which we can avow; 
first of all, to collect forces vso imposing that resis- 
tance will be impossible, and therefore not sanguin- 
ary; and secondly, to leave misled men the time 
to return to reason." 

Hostilities were suspended on April 25th to 
allow the inhabitants of Neuilly (where the fight- 
ing had been heavy and almost continuous since 
April ist)to leave their houses. Their homes 
had been alternately held by Federates and Ver- 
saillese, and the cellars had been the residence of 
the greatest part of the population for many days. 

A committee of four was chosen, two by each of 
the opposing parties. M. Bonvalet, ex-Mayor 3d 
arrondissement, and M. Stupuy, a literary man, 
were the Commune's representatives; M. Adam 
and M. Loiseau-Pinson (both of whom had re- 
signed as members of the Commune) were the 
Versaillese representatives. This Committee was 
charged with attending to the carr5dng out of the 
essentials of the agreement for the armistice. 
The village was visited during this day of peace 
by crowds from Paris, among them many women, 
and the scenes of suffering witnessed and the acts 
of kindness performed would require many pages 
to narrate. At 5 p. m. hostilities were resumed. 
One writer says : "Nearly all the ruins were filled 
with dead insurgents, more or less in a state. of 
decomposition; most of them had received bullet 
•holes through the head, killed in the act of 
firing over the barricades or through loop- 



78 THK PARIS COMMUNK. 

holes . "* The floors of many of the houses in Neuilly 
were soaked with blood. 

On the 26th the Versaillese showed their real 
strength in their attacks upon the forts. They had 
been advancing lines of heavy guns and had almost 
reduced Issy to silence. It is said there were 
breaches in the redoubts of this fort through 
which a carriage might have been driven. 

The gunboats of the Federates on the Seine 
were of great service, doing much execution and 
sheltering themselves beneath the railway viaducts. 
One of these, the Liberty, being of light draft, was 
particularly active, running out, firing, and re- 
turning to cover to reload. 

The fierceness of the cannonade increased on 
the 27th, Montrouge and Issy being the principal 
objects of assault. " Issy, though dismantled, and, 
in spite of its escarpes tumbling into the ditch and 
its ruined barracks, still fought with desperation, 
throwing shell on Tour-des- Anglais, Clamart and 
Meudon. Montrouge was scarcely better off than 
Issy." 

The practices of the Versaillese were exempli- 
fied on April 27th. Four Federates were cap- 
tured. The captain of the Versaillese company, 
drawing his revolver, killed three of the prisoners 
and shot the other — Captain Scheffer — through 
the chest; he fell as if dead, but recovered suffi- 
ciently to escape to the Federate ranks.f Yet re- 
prisals were forbidden by Federates as ** not ac- 
cording to civilized warfare." 

*A8 the Versaillese officers made a practice of shooting the prisoners 
through the head with their pistols, (rather than be troubled with their 
detention or than to lessen their forces by detailing a guard to conduct 
prisoners to the rear,) the bullet holes in the heads are otherwise explainable. 

fWhen Tolain interpellated War Minister Le Flo upon this matter in the 
Assembly, his voice was drowned by the howling of membera, and Le Flo 
was, by the Assembly, forbidden to answer. 



WAR — THK EVENTS OF APRIL. 79 

Severe fighting took place on the West of Paris 
on the 28th. 

Thiers made a speech in the Assembly. He 
again and again declared his undying fealty to 
France, and in shielding himself from rumors of 
his attempts to re-establish the Orleanists, he was 
moved to tears and was encouraged by cries 
of '* Go on!" "Goon!" As he related his sacrifices 
for his country he was again deeply moved. He 
closed this emotional address by avowing his inten- 
tion of carrying out the wishes of the Assembly. 
As a dramatic efi"ort this oration is said to have 
been of great merit. 

Constant precautions were taken as the Ver- 
saillese gained ground to prevent the escape of 
any persons from the city. By the end of April 
Thiers had stopped provisions from coming into 
the city through the gates controlled by the Ver- 
saillese. But the neutral zone between the Ger- 
man lines and the walls was sufficient to scantily 
supply the city. The Department of Subsistence 
had no very great difficulties. 

The National Guards, loyal to the Versaillese, 
were constantly under suspicion, and any show of 
consideration for the prisoners was looked upon 
as treason. The soldiers of the line, (whose num- 
bers were constantly augmented by the prison- 
ers who arrived from Germany by Bismarck's 
orders,) were, to some extent, animated by a desire 
to conquer, and hoped by their valor and atrocities 
here, to somewhat atone before the world for their 
ignominous defeat by the Germans. Those who 
expressed sympathy for the Commune and for 
relatives of Communists, w^ere treated with no 
pity; many were secretly killed and others, after 
a farcical trial, were executed at Versailles. 



8o THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

No more significant occurrence was to be ob- 
served during the Commune's regime than the deter- 
mined stand taken in affairs by the Masonic fra- 
ternity in Paris. On April 26th they had decided, 
in mass meeting, to employ all means "to obtain 
the Communal liberties of Paris." On the 29th, 
10,000 of them, representing 55 lodges, paraded. 
Members of the Commune, decorated with red 
sashes bordered with gold lace, reviewed the 
procession from the Court of Honor at the Hotel de 
Ville. It was decided to make one more attempt 
to obtain a peaceful arrangement with the Ver- 
saillese. ** A balloon was sent up which let fall 
at intervals outside Paris, a manifesto of the 
Masons." 

M. Beslay, who for 56 years had been a 
Mason, made a vigorous and humane speech, in- 
sisting upon the necessity of the Freemasons of 
the city assisting in "arranging immediate terms of 
peace or of furnishing the city with their arms to 
defeat its enemies." He asked the honor of accom- 
panying the delegation as the senior member of 
the Commune and the senior Mason of Paris. 

Citizen Leo Meillet then said: — " Y011 have 
just heard the only music to which we can listen 
before a definite peace. Here is the red flag which 
the Commune of Paris offers to the Masonic depu- 
tations. This flag should accompany your pacific 
banners; it is the flag of universal peace. It is 
the flag of the Commune of Paris, which the Com- 
mune is about to confide to the Freemasons." 

Citizen Terifocq took the red flag from the 
hands of Citizen Leo Meillet, addressed the assem- 
bly the following words: — "Citizens, brothers; I 
am of those who took the initiative to go and plant 
the standard of peace on our ramparts. We will 



APRIL — THK KVKNTS OF WAR. 8 1 

say: Soldiers of the same country, come and 
fraternize with us; and if peace is accomplished, 
we will return to Paris convinced that we have 
gained the most glorious victory — that of 
humanity! If, on the contrary, we are not heard, 
but are fired upon, we will call every vengeance to 
our aid. We are certain that we shall be heard, 
and that the Masonry of all the provinces of 
France will follow our example. We are sure 
that in whatever part of the country our brothers 
see troops directed upon Paris, they will go to 
meet them and call upon them to fraternize." 

Five members of the Commune, selected by lot, 
were in the procession, which was followed by 
40,000 or 50,000 citizens to the Arc d'Triomphe. A 
shower of shells fell here, killing many persons and 
wounding many others. These shells were fired 
in reply to a cannonade from Porte Maillot. The 
deputation placed its banner on the wall at Porte 
Maillot; the Versaillese commander at this point 
was a Freemason and ceased firing after the flag 
was planted. He explained to the deputation that 
the cessation of firing was necessarily only tem- 
porary. The delegates were furnished, by this 
commander with a carriage, in which they pro- 
ceeded to Versailles to interview M. Thiers. 

The delegates were received by M. Thiers, 
who replied: "There will be a few more houses 
shelled, and a few more men killed, but force must 
remain to the law." In answer to a communica- 
tion afterwards sent to him, he declared that he 
had nothing to add to his previous reply. 

From its inability to obtain fresh horses, the 
deputation was forced to return to Paris on foot, 
where they arrived at 6 o'clock in the morning on 
the 30th. 



82 THK PARIS COMMUNK. 

The action of Thiers toward the committee 
showed all peace endeavors to be fruitless; and 
the Parisian Freemasons prepared to, and did 
thereafter, assist materially in the defence of 
the city. 

On April 29th Megy deserted Fort Issy. 
Cluseret ordered it re-occupied immediately on 
being apprised of the evacuation. But suspicion 
had fastened on Cluseret, and he was at once ar- 
rested and Rossel installed as Delegate of -War. 
He at once instituted a second system of barricades, 
the construction of which was put in charge of 
Napoleon Gaillard, who, to enthusiasm in the cause 
added knowledge and industry, and the work was 
conducted with vigor and apparent ability. 

Nothing was ever done with Megy for his 
desertion of Issy. 

Cluseret had made himself generally unpopu- 
lar. Some of the newspapers had made an 
attack upon him, intimating that he only waited an 
opportunity to declare himself dictator; that a 
"coup d'etat" might be expected, etc. Nothing can 
be found to justify these insinuations; they were 
probably used to drive him from the head of the 
War Department, Dombrowski and some other 
officers had tendered their resignations, but with- 
drew them after Cluseret's displacement. 

Cluseret was a Frenchman by birth and a naturalized American 
citizen. He was naturalized under the special act of Congress which 
provides for the naturalization of any one who had been two years 
In the military service of the United States. He had been made a 
Brigadier-General by President Lincoln upon the recommendation of 
Senator Sumner, who described Cluseret as a "gallant Frenchman 
, who had come over to fight for the cause of the Union.". He was 
never given a position in the Union Army commensurate with the 
rank of Brigadier-General, but was assigned to an obscure post in 
•Baltimore by Secretary Stanton. He was for some time attached to 
the staff of General Fremont. Cluseret was with the Fenians in the 



WAR — THK ^VKNTS OF APRII,. 83 

attack on Chester Castle in England In 1867, and afterwards was 
again in America, returning to France in 1870. Early in October, 
CUiseret walked out of Paris through the German lines, and was 
presently installed General-in-Chief of the National Guards at 
Marseilles. He soon returned to Paris and became prominent in the 
Communal uprising. The unservlceability of the War Department 
under Cluseret is a prominent feature in the Commune's history. He is 
accused of insincerity as well as of incapacity, and from his conduct 
in office and in the last days, we are not impressed with a very high 
regard for either his military talents or his earnestness in the Com- 
munal cause. No record shows to us what Cluseret's ability was in 
handling troops ta the field; but, if we may Judge from the accounts 
of his life and character, he was more the diplomat than the soldier. 
His occupation is given by one writer* as an artist and by 
others as an agitator. In writing to Varlin from New York, on the 
17th of February, 1870, Cluseret observed:— "You say success is cer- 
tain. So it is if we prepare the ground beforehand. When the day 
arrives, we shall be ready; physically as well as morally ready. 
When that day shall come, it will be either us or nothing. Paris will 
be ours, or Paris will have ceased to be." 

In Lyons on April 30th, a manifesto was is- 
sued in which it was stated that pending an elec- 
tion, the Red Republican Party had appointed a 
temporary Commune, which *' would no longer 
suffer a factious Assembly to wave in France the 
flag of civil war, but that in the meanwhile the 
members of the Commune * resolved, rather than 
to see victory taken from them, to convert into a 
mass of ruins a town sufficiently cowardly to allow 
Paris and the Republic to be assassinated.' " 

Furious fighting occurred in Lyons on April 
30th and May ist; the Guards fought desperately 
behind barricades. They were outnumbered, and 
after suffering much loss, were forced to sur- 
render. After the defeat the National Guards 
were disarmed. 

MilHere, who had worked hard to organize 
the provincials in Pa ris ever since the early part 

♦Latimer. 



84 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

of April, induced the " Republican Alliance of the 
Departments," consisting of provincials residing 
in Paris, to give a formal adhesion to the Com- 
mune; on the 30th of April, 15,000 men accom- 
panying Milliere to the Hotel de Ville, after hav- 
ing voted an address to the departments. 

Various requisitions had been made upon the 
Bank of France during the month of April. 
The amounts demanded by the Commune had 
rarely been paid in full, but with these monies, 
and the regular revenues, the expenses of the 
municipality had been carried on. 

The limits of this work preclude the possi- 
bility of a detailed recital of all the sanguinary 
contests of this struggle. But, from the records of 
the events of the conflict, sufficient has been already 
narrated to show the lack of discipline, lack of 
military leadership and lack of orderly attention 
in the distribution of ammunition and supplies for 
the Federates. Their courage at times was marvel- 
ous; their losses were appalling. The result of 
April's war operations were neither creditable nor 
favorable to the Commune. There is no evidence 
that the prisoners taken in battle by the Federates 
were treated otherwise than with the considera- 
tion due to prisoners of war. 

On the other hand, the trained warriors of 
the Assembly's force were gaining steadily and 
surely. Their operations were conducted with 
precision and skillful purpose. Nor can it be said 
that, in the later days, the Versaillese troops were 
less brave than were the Federates; the former, how- 
ever, were guided by men who depended much 
more upon strategic procedure than upon the valor 
of the soldiery. But to. this .cautiQus^wisdoni..in 
combat there was added, by both officers and rden 



WAR— THK EVENTS OF APRIL. 85 

of the Versaillese, a ferocious and disgraceful 
ill-treatment of prisoners that has left a record of 
helpless slain and needless suffering which 
those most friendly to the Assembly have sought 
in vain to j ustify or to extenuate. The Federates 
taken prisoners were the objects by which brutal 
abuse and assassination were established as prece- 
dents in "civilized" warfare — inexpressibly mourn- 
ful at best, and enormous in these iniquities. The 
murders of prisoners in April were as unnecessary as 
they were atrocious. The annals of extermination 
by the Assembly's troops would indicate their 
belief to have been that they were at war with 
wild beasts and not with human beings — men 
bound to them by a thousand ties of interest and 
of consanguinity. 

"War — it niay be summed up to be the com- 
bination and concentration of all the horrors, 
atrocities, crimes and sufferings of which human 
nature, on this globe, is capable." No wars have 
been so sad as civil strifes; certainly not one of 
these ever furnished a chronicle redder in blood or 
blacker in atrocities than did the revolt of 187 1. 



86 • THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

May i -20— The Fall of the Forts. 



\ 



On May ist, the commander of the forces at- 
tacking Fort Issy, (who was a former comrade of 
Rossel's,) sent him this message : " Immediate 
surrender of Issy will obtain for its defenders the 
rights of prisoners of war; , otherwise the fort vStilli 
be taken and the men shot.'* To which Rossel 
replied: " If you again send such an insolent 
message, I shall have your messenger shot in 
conformity with military usage." 

Miot, in the Commune's sitting, introduced a 
proposition for the election of a Committee of Pub- 
lic Safety to consist of five members; 44 members 
voted in favor of this proposal and 24 against it. 
Antoine Arnaud, Leo Meillet, Gabriel Ranvier, 
Felix Pyat and Charles Gerardin were elected. 
Those who voted against the Committee's forma- 
tion, refused to take part in the election of its 
members. The nine heads of departments re- 
mained in office, notwithstanding the Committee of 
Public Safety was given full powers to act, al- 
though instituted especially /to attend to the affairs 
of the war. Jourde and others refrained from at- 
tending the sittings of the Commune, being op- 
posed to the delegating of full powers to the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety.* 

Rossel, who was a methodical tactician, at- 
tempted some improvements in discipline, and 

*This committee was instituted in imitation of one of tiie same name i|j 
tlie revolution of 1789. 



MAY I-20 — THE FALI. OF THE FORTS. 87 

consequently was unpopular with the Federates. 
Neither their organization nor their disposition 
had improved since the siege began. 

The Chateau d'Issy had been taken on the 
30th of April by the Versaillese, and on May ist 
the Communists retook it. On the advance of the 
Versaillese on the 2d, the Federates made a sortie 
to meet them and in the action took nearly 300 
prisoners and inflicted great losses on their antag- 
onists. They seemed to have achieved a decisive 
victory and were preparing to silence a battery be- 
tween the Chateau and the fort. Their three bat- 
talions, advancing in the early morning, were met 
by an overwhelming force, which drove the 
Federates from the Chateau and to the gates of 
the city. The pursuers inflicted great losses on the 
fugitives, who were denied admission, an order 
being operative that no Federate should be al- 
lowed to pass in. The Federates threatened to fire 
on the guard at the gate, but finally scattered and 
joined other battalions in the vicinity. 

The station at Clamart also fell into the hands 
of the Versaillese after a sharp engagement. 
Hand-to-hand conflicts were common, and when 
the Federates left the field, more than 200 of their 
men were dead, nearly all killed by either bayonet 
or sword. 

Attempts were made through various sources 
to arrange the exchange of Archbishop Darboy 
and three or four others of the hostages for 
Blanqui. United States Minister Washburn was 
particularly active in this aff"air; he was granted 
passes by Rigault and Cluseret to visit Mgr. Darboy 
in prison. Mr. Washburn, contrary to the prison 
regulations, brought wine and other articles into 
the prison for the Archbishop. > All advances 
in relation to the exchange were apparently 



88 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

less summarily considered than were the applica- 
tions by peace deputations, but that Thiers even 
seriously considered the propositions of exchange 
is very doubtful.* 

Thiers evidently took the position regarding 
the exchange of prisoners, that, if the hostages 
were not executed, it would be evidence enough 
that there was no need of an exchange; if, on the 
other hand they were executed, it would be suffi- 
cient evidence of the necessity of the drastic 
measure so w^ell planned and so determinedly 
carried out. 

On May 2d Fort Issy was three times as strong 
in men as when evacuated by Megy, but the con- 
dition of the fort and armament was such that a 
vigorous defense was not even intended. How- 
ever, the Versaillese advance w^as checked while 
the defences at the ramparts were strengthened. 

Rossel, on this day, sent a letter to several 
Paris papers in which he denied anything except 
the most friendly feeling between himself and 
Cluseret, and further said: "I feel bound not to 
make myself, by my silence, an accomplice to the 
malevolent rumors to which General Cluseret may 
be exposed in the unfortiinale position in which 
he is placed, until the justice of the Commune has 
passed upon his acts." This appearance of 
fairness raised Rossel in the estimation of the 
populace. 

Rigault was vigorous in the suppression of 
spying and intriguing in favor of Versailles, and 
his acts of arrests and methods of imprisonment 
were distasteful to some of the members of the 
Commune. He was told that secret imprisonment 

*A message was sent to Versailles stating that unless a million francs 
($200,000) were paid as a ransom for the Archbishop of Paris, he would be 



MAY I-20 — THK FAI.I. OF THK FORTS. 89 

was immoral. To these objections he made that 
famous answer, so often quoted: ''War is im- 
moral, yet we fight." 

The Versaillese on May 3d had a plan by 
which a gate of the city was to be opened. This 
failed, much to the chagrin of Thiers, who was 
persistent in attempts to buy an entrance. There 
is a suspicion, not well established by records, that 
some of the Commune's members took the Ver- 
saillese money, but failed to open the gates, which, 
in any event, were never opened by the means the 
Assembly's agents so unceasingly employed. 

May 4th, the Federates in Moulin-Saquet re- 
doubt, (one of the Commune's strongest positions 
garrisoned by between 600 and 800 men,) were 
surprised by a force of 1,200 Versaillese. Half 
the Federate force was butchered in cold blood, 
large numbers being bay onetted while not yet awake 
— overcome by days and nights of sleepless 
activity. Rossel blamed General Wroblewski 
for absenting himself from the fortification; and 
there was a clash of authority; it was proven 
that Felix Pyat, of the Committee of Public Safety, 
had ordered Wroblewski to leave the fort, although 
Pyat denied it until his written order was pro- 
duced. Wroblewski was exonerated. 

Thiers detailed this massacre to the Assembly 
with unseemly joy as soon as he was made aware 
of the facts. 

The surprise of Moulin-Saquet has been 
ascribed to many methods. One was that Versaillese 
disguised as peasants drove a herd of cattle up to 
the fort, the gates were opened, they rushed in 
and massacred the inmates. Another story was 
that a body of Assembly's troops presented them- 
selves, dressed in the uniform of the National 
Guard, and on pretence of being a patrol party, 



go THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

gave the countersign and gained admittance. 
The affair has been accounted for by the statement 
that the commandant or an officer had divulged 
the watchword in a coifee house. It has also been 
said that the affair was the result of bribery. Gal- 
lien, the commander was accused of having sold 
the countersign to the enemy.* There were 
vehement complaints of treachery. The lassi- 
tude which allowed the surprise was discred- 
itable, but the butchery by the victors was nothing 
less than infamous — a slaughter of helpless men, 
scarcely equalled in atrocity in the annals of the 
wars of savages. There has never been a doubt 
that all of the 300 or 400 men slain while asleep 
(or drunk, as some writers say), at Moulin-Saquet 
could have been taken prisoners. Few of the 
garrison escaped, most of those not killed being 
captured. The redoubt was cannonaded by Forts 
Ivry and Bic^tre as soon as the situation was 
made known to them, and a large body of Fed- 
erates soon drove the Versaillese from the works, 
the latter taking with them their prisoners and 
six cannon, for the transportation of which they 
had come provided with horses. 

A deputation of the RepJiblican Unioii inter- 
viewed Thiers on the 4th, but were met with the 
usual evasions. The Commune was also inter- 
viewed by a deputation of the same body, but no 
basis of conciliation could be agreed upon. 

Nearly 100 men were sent to prison for insub- 
ordination on May 5th. The plate taken from 
the churches and silver ingots were minted, by 
order of the Commune. Seven papers, inimical 
to the Commune, were ordered suppressed; but 
this order, like many others, was not systematic- 
ally carried out. Some newspapers 'ordered 

' ♦Fetridge. 



MAY 1-20 — THE FALI. OF THE FORTS. 9 1 

suppressed in the morning were allowed to be 
sold on the streets in the evening. 

A decree for the demolition of the Expiatory 
Chapel of Louis XVI, to be carried out within 
eight days, was passed by the Commune, which 
designated the administrator of the public lands 
as the recipient of the profits from the sale of the 
material and contents of the chapel. 

There w^as continual friction betw^een the 
Committee of Public Safety, the Committee Cen- 
tral and the Delegate of War. 

General Dombrowski was assigned to the 
command of the right bank of the Seine; General 
Iva Cecilia between the Seine and the left bank of 
the Bierre, with the title of General of the Center; 
General Wroblewski, the left wing; General Ber- 
geret, commander of the First Reserve Brigade; 
General Kudes, the command of Second Reserve 
Brigade. The officers named were given in- 
terior headquarters as follows: 

Dombrowski— PZace Vendome. 
La Cl&Cl'LIA— Military School. 
Wroblewski— rfte EUjsee. 
'F,VJi'E.&—Legio7i of Honor. 
^^B.GT&^^'S— Legislative Hall. 

The territory west of the city was being oc- 
cupied by the Versaillese, who made great gains 
on the 5th, a large number of minor engagements 
taking place. The Federates, resisting stubborn- 
ly, were gradually giving way before the superior 
forces of disciplined, fresh and well-supplied 
troops. 

Skirmishes in the Park at Bagneux and at 
Neuilly resulted adversely to the Federate forces. 
The Assembly's troops were now entrenched 300 
yards from Porte Maillot. The railway betw^een 
Forts Vanves and Issy was taken in the night of 



92 THB PARIS COMMUNIS. 

5th-6th; this cut off communication between the 
forts. 

The Federates lost much ground on the 6th. 

On Sunday, the 7th, Thiers issued a proclama- 
tion addressed to the Parisians from which the fol- 
lowing is an extract: "The Government which 
speaks to you would have preferred that you 
should liberate yourselves from a few tyrants who 
are playing with your liberties and your lives; 
but since you cannot do so, it must itself under- 
take the duty; And for that purpose it has col- 
lected an army beneath your walls — an army 
which comes, at the price of its blood, not to con- 
quer, but to deliver you. Up to the present time 
it has confined itself to attacking the outer walls. 
The moment has now arrived when, to abridge 
your sufferings, it must attack the endente itself. 
It will not bombard Paris, as the people of 
the Commune and Committee of Public Safety will 
not fail to tell you it intends. A bombardment 
threatens a whole city, and renders it uninhabita- 
ble, and has for its object to intimidate the citizens, 
and constrain them to a capitulation. The 
Government will not fire a cannon except to force 
one of your gates, and will endeavor to limit to 
the point attacked, the ravages of war of which it 
is not the author." 

A grand concert was given in several halls 
in the Tuilleries on Sunday night the 7th, for the 
benefit of the families of the killed or wounded 
Federates. Those who gained admission were 
compelled to stand in line an hour, and many who 
purchased tickets were unable to enter.* The re- 
ceipts were more than ^2,400. 

*" Ten thousand people filled all the apartments, wandering everywhere 
at their ease, and examining into every nook and corner of the vast palace. 
The comments of the rabble were most amusing. Mj' secretarj- kept along 
with the crowd everywhere, seeing all that was to be seen and listeinng to 



MAY I -20 — THK FAI^I, OF THK FORTS. 93 

At this entertainment cloths were tied over 
the heads of the busts of Napoleon's generals. 
The members of the Commune in person were in 
charge of the affair. 

"By 8 o'clock the reception rooms were 
full and some 2,000 people still stood in a long 
string in the garden outside. They behaved with 
the wondrous good nature which characterizes a 
French crowd, laughing over the absurdity of their 
predicament and waving their tickets, which they 
would never be able to present, jestingly at one 
another. "t 

Thiers had for some time made daily visits to 
superintend hundreds of laborers and carpen- 
ters engaged in the work of building a gigantic 
battery at Montretout. This work was begun on 
April 29th and finished on May 4th. During 
these six days an immense amount of labor was 
performed. Powder magazines, etc., were a part 
of the work. It is said that more than 150,000 
cubic feet of earth were moved in this construc- 
tion. The new fortification, about a mile in 
extent, and consisting of eight batteries, assisted 
by those surrounding it, assured the breaching 
of the ramparts. Over 70 cannon of large 
calibre, each supplied with 500 shells (some of 
which weighed 160 pounds) centralized their force 
upon a comparatively small portion of the city's 
walls, and with terrible effect. Marine pieces, 

all that was said. Great interest centered in the private apartments of the 
Empress. The gorgeous belongings were everywhere commented upon by 
the mob. The bath-room of the Empress attracted great attention. It was 
represented as very handsome, and as a marvel of luxury, beaiity and taste. 
It was surrounded by heavy plate mirrors. The tub was cut out of solid 
marble. The ceilings were all covered with rich blue silk velvet. The 
faucets in the bath were of solid silver. All that was seen was described by 
the Communards as evidence of the profligacy and luxury of the Court, 
which accounted for the oppression of the people and for the vast increase of 
the taxes levied upon them. Not one man in the crowd, it is safe to say, 
had ever paid a cent of taxes in his life,"— Washburti. 
t Fetridge. 



94 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

worked by sailors accustomed to their operation 
were of great assistance to the besiegers. The 
fire of this aggregation of heavy batteries began 
on Monday morning, centreing on Point du Jour. 

One hundred and fifty great guns were pour- 
ing shot and shell on Paris and the forts. 

Fort Valerien continued to direct a terrific fire 
on Porte Malliot and the adjacent ramparts, which 
displayed frightful defacements as a result. 

Unceasing activity in the construction of 
barricades marked the early days of May. Huge 
defenses rose at the Place de la Concorde, Rue 
Royale, Rue Rivoli and at the corner of the Tuil- 
leries. In front of each of these barricades was a 
wide ditch. Many of the defences were pierced 
for artillery, and in the embrasures were placed 
mitrailleuses.* 

Fort Issy was now in an untenable condition. 
A battalion which had reinforced it the day before 
had lost half its men, and, after making prepara- 
tions to blow up the fort, the garrison quietly 
evacuated it. About ii o'clock in the night of 
May Sth-Qth, the Versaillese, getting no return 
fire, investigated and occupied the fort.f 

* A force, consisting- of 5,000 or 6,000 men, w^s for many days at work on 
the interior defences, under direction of a corps of engineers, Th0 A re 
d'Triomph was fortified. The barricade at the angle of the Rue de Rivoli 
and the Rue de St. Florentine was a veritable redoubt, supporting itself to 
the right on the Ministry of Marine, and to the left on the Tulleries; it was 
constructed of earth and sacks filled with earth, and wfis pierced with five 
embrsrsures. The Places Concorde, Vendome aud Madeleine and Hotel de 
Ville were strongly barricaded. On the Quai de Passy a strong barricade 
was erected near the Jesuit's College, which was also converted into a 
fortress; the walls of the college gardens were made into extemporized and 
connected fortific£^tions. Houses were crenellated; the cellars were con- 
nected with each other *nd with the barricades by tunnels. These prepara- 
tions were made particularly in those parts of the city inhabited by the 
workingmen. 

fin Fort Issy, 119 guns were captured and 10 more in the village, as 
well as huge quantities of munitions and provisions. A short time after the 
u -cupation of the fort by the Assembly's troops, a considerable body of 
Federates advanced toward the fort, probably to reinforce its defence, evi- 
dently unaware of the state of affairs. They were met by a heavy fire *nd 
driven back, losing sevei*al of their number. 



MAY I-20— THK FALL OF THE FORTS. 95 

As a soldier, Rossel recognized that a passive 
defence against an increasing force, could but delay 
the fall of the fortifications. On assuming the 
head of the War Department, he had at once 
determined on instituting a plan for offensive 
warfare; this was nuUifiedby thedilatorinessof the 
Commune's proceeding. 

Now, disgusted with the conflicts of authority, 
appreciating, in common with many of the leaders 
the hopelessness of a continuation of the methods 
in vogue; in power rather from a desire for place 
than through a love of the cause, he determined 
to cease his struggles with the legislators, debaters 
and committees, none of whom had shown any 
knowledge of military procedure, and few even of 
the necessities of action and the subordination of 
theories in war. Immediately on hearing of Fort 
Issy's occupation by the enemy, he posted notices 
all over Paris, many more in number than was usual 
in issuing proclamations — "The tri-color floats 
over the Fort Issy, abandoned last night by the 
garrison," — which certainly has more the sound of 
the announcement of a victory than of so dis- 
astrous a surrender. 

The next day, when Rossel's despatch was 
seen posted on the walls of Paris, and published 
in tho^ Journal Officiel, a hurried meeting was held 
by the members of the Commune, and the follow- 
ing proclamation appeared: 

"It is by a regrettable error that the an- 
nouncement has been made, that the Fort of Issy 
had been taken and occupied by the Versaillese. 
Nothing of the sort has occurred, happily, and 
the flag of the Commune still floats on its ram- 
parts!" 

This contradiction was ordered to be posted 
and was sent to all the Mairies by Vesinier, 



96 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

member of the Commune. The Journal Officiel, 
however, never published the contradiction. 

Rossel tendered to the Commune his resigna- 
tion as Delegate of War, which was accepted. He 
related some very unpleasant truths in his letter, 
a very remarkable document, which he closed by 
asking for a cell at Mazas prison.* 

Kudes had, on May ist, been commissioned 
by Rossel to take charge of Fort Issy. Kudes had 
proceeded there unwillingly and had immediately 
sought to find means to get back, and finally did 
leave the fort, turning its command over to Collet, 
who evacuated it as stated. 

Rossel, Gerardin and probably Dombrowski, 
were parties to a secret attempt to overthrow the 
Commune, and place the conduct of the war in 
the hands of Rossel and Dombrowski. 

The choice of members for the Committee of 
Public Safety had been unfortunate in more than 
one instance. Pyat was particularly violent in 
language, extravagant in ideas and uncertain in 

*Eesignation of Rossel as Delegate of War. 

Paris, May 9th. 

"Citizens, members of the Commune:— Being charged by you with the 
provisional direction of the war-operations, I feel myself incapable of any 
longer supporting the responsibility of a command where every one de- 
liberates and no one obeys. 

"When a necessity existed for organizing the artillery, the Central 
Committee of that arm discussed but did not order anything. After two 
month's o! revolution, the whole service of your cannons was still depen- 
dent on the energy of a few volunteers, whose number is insufficient. 

" At my arrival at the Ministry, when I desired to facilitate the concen- 
tration of arms, the requisition of horses, the pursuit of men evading ser- 
vice, I asked the Commune to turn to useful account the various Munici- 
palities of arrondissement. 

J " That body deliberated, but came to no resolution. 

"Later, the Central Committee of the Federation came and offered, 
almost imperiously, its assistance in the administration of the war. Con- 
sulted by the Committee of Public Safety, I accepted that aid in the clearest 
manner, and I transferred to the Central Committee all the information I 

Possessed relative to the organization. Since that time that body has been 
ebating, but has not yet acted. During that delay the enemy enveloped 
the Fort of Issy with adventurous and imprudent attacks, which I should 
punish if I had the smallest military force disposable. <-j 

-s"The garrison, badly commanded, was seized with panic; and the 



MAY I-20 — THE FAI.L OF THB FORTS. 97 

action. The resignation of the Committee of Public 
Safety was called for, tendered and accepted. A 
second Committee of Public Safety (the entire Com- 
mune concurring) was elected, consisting of Eudes, 
A. Arnaud, Delescluze, Gambon and Ranvier. 
Delescluze being now appointed Delegate of War, 
Billioray was elected in his stead on the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety. This body decided to 
sit in permanence at the Hotel de Ville, and the 
Commune's meetings were to be held three times 
each week instead of daily as heretofore. The 
proceedings of the Commune were published in the 
four7ial Officiel, except of the sessions in which mili- 
tary affairs were discussed. Rossel, who was ar- 
rested on the morning of the loth, demanded a 

officers, having debated, drove away Captain Dumont, an energetic man 
who arrived to command them, and while consulting, evacuated their fort, 
after having foolishly spoken of blowing it up, a thing more impossible for 
them than to defend it. 

"That was not enough. Yesterday, while every one ought to have 
been at work or under fire, the chiefs of legions deliberated in order to sub- 
stitute a new system of organization for the one I had adopted, in order to 
make up for the improvidence of their authority, always uncertain and 
badly obeyed. The result of their meeting was a jjroject, at the moment 
when men were wanted, and a declaration of principles, when acts were 
necessary. My indignation brou^t them back to other thoughts, and they 
promised me for this day, as their final effort, an organized force of 12,000 
men, with which I undertook to march against the enemy. Those men 
were to assemble at half-past eleven; it is now one, and they are not ready; 
instead of being 12,000, there are about 7,000, which is not at all the same 
thing. Thus, the nullity of the Committee of Artillery prevented the 
organization of that arm; the incertitude of the Central Committee arrested 
the administration; and the petty preoccupation of the chiefs of legions 
paralyzed the mobilization of the troops. 

*' I am not a man to recoil before repression, and yesterday, while 
those officers were deliberating; the execution-company awaited them in 
the court-yard. But I am unwilling to assume alone the initiative in an 
energetic manner, to take on me the odium of the executions necessary to 
extract from their chaos organization, obedience, aud victory. Again, if I 
was protected by the publicit}' of my acts, I might retain my command. 
But the Commune has not had the courage to make its proceedings known. 
Twice already I have given you the necessary information; and on both 
occasions, in "spite of me, you have held a secret committee. 

' ' My predecessor was wrong to struggle in the midst of this absurd 
situation. Enlightened by bis example, and knowing that the strength of a 
revolutionist consists solely in the precision of his position, I have two lines 
to choose from — either to crush the obstacle which hinders my action, or to 
withdraw. I shall not do the former, for the obstruction is you and your 
feebleness; and I am unwilling to make an attack on the public sovereignty. 

" I therefore retire, and I have the honor to ask you for a cell at Mazas. 

" BoSSEIi. 



gS THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

trial, and Charles Gerardin was deputed to bring 
him before the Commune. After a considerable 
wait, the fact was disclosed that both Rossel and 
Gerardin had disappeared, and neither was again 
discovered until resurrected by the Versaillese.* 
A decree of accusation had been passed 
against Rossel by the Commune; in his post- 
humous papers he avers that he was accused of 
traitorously surrendering Fort Issy. 

Louis Nathaniel Rossel, though very young, was one of the most 
capable men the Commune produced. He was born in Brittany in 
1844, and was the son of a French father and a Scotch mother. This 
admixture of blood seems to have given force and gravity to his dis- 
position. He has been described as entirely wanting in the showy 
and theatrical qualities of the French nature. Energetic, practical, 
and businesslike, he appears to have had a quiet contempt for the 
declamation and posturing which generally form so large a part of 
the life of French Republicans, 

He was with the army of Bazaine at Metz, as an inferior officer of 
Engineers; and, while there, was so impressed with the absolute in- 
capacity of the commanding officers that, even as early as the first 
half of August, 1870, he formed a plan for expelling the whole body. 
Immediately after the surrender of Metz, he escaped, first to Belgium, 
and from there went to England. 

Early in December Rossel re-enterfsd his native country. He 
was presented to M. Gambetta at Tours, and ultimately accepted 
the position of Chief Engineer Officer in the camp at Nevers. The 
conclusion of peace excited in him the highest indignation. 

The force of these ideas induced Rossel, on the 19th of March, 
1871, (the day following that on which the Commune may be said to 
have been born), to address to the Minister of War at Versailles a 
letter resigning his post at the camps of Nevers. He wrote :— " I have 
the honor to inform you that I am about to proceed to Paris, to place 
myself at the disposal of the Government forces which are about to 
be organized there. Having learned by a Versailles despatch, pub- 
lished this day, that two parties are struggling for mastery in the 
country, I do not hesitate in joining the side which has not con- 
cluded peace, and which does not include in its ranks generals guilty 
of capitulation." V 

* *A court-martial, of which Collet was to be president, was already named. 
" I could not bear," writes Rossel, " the idea of appearing as an accused 
before that Collet whom I had seen cowering before the shells at Issy; and 
it was then that I determined to evade the justice of the Commune." 



MAY 1-20 — THK FALL OF THE FORTS. 99 

When Rossel offered his services, he was questioned by the 
Federate officials as to what his sentiments were regarding 
Socialism. He frankly answered that he knew nothing about it. In 
his posthumous papers he said : "I was as much the enemy of the 
Commune as the sensible Republicans were; yet I still thought that 
the Commune could and ought to be beneficial." 

When a correspondent once asked him why he sat as President 
of the Military Court in plain clothes, and not in uniform, he replied, 
speaking in English: " Oh, you know, we aim at being rather Ameri- 
can in our ideas, and especially in our detestation of forms and cere- 
monies. We don't want to sit in wigs and gowns, like the English 
judges. If I happen to be in uniform, I go to Court in that way ; if I 
am in plain clothes, 1 do not change them." After his elevation to 
the position of Delegate of War, however, he thought it advisable to 
assume the dress of a general; but he had it made after a very sim- 
ple pattern. " As great an enemy to killing as to warfare," Rossel 
wrote, •' I nevertheless accept all the consequences of the situations 
in which I am placed." We have no I'eas^^n to suppose he was not 
a man of humane disposition. The only sentence of death he pro- 
nounced in the Military Court was quashed. He seems to have had a 
mania for plotting. He plotted against his superior officers at Metz; 
insinuations of secret acts against Cluseret brought from Rossel a 
letter of denial ; he was in at least one plot to overthrow the Commune. 
He was of middle height and slight build, and wore a short, fair 
beard. His quiet, self-confident look, his deliberate and thoughtful 
way of speaking, and his reserved manners, made him seem much 
more like an Englishman, an American, or a Prussian, than a 
frenchman. 

Rossel had been Captain of Engineers of the French Army, 
Colonel under Gambetta, Chief of Staff under Cluseret, Delegate of 
War and President of the Military Court. 

After parting from Gerardin, Rossel got out of Paris, and, fail- 
ing to quit the country, was arrested on the 7th of June, as a deserter 
from the regular army. 

The Commune's artillerymen elected their of- 
ficers, who refused to obey Avrial, Commandant 
of Artillery appointed by Rossel. 

The Orphan Asylum of Belleville, a semi- 
religious institution was closed on the loth and 
the property of the asylum was confiscated. 

On the morning of May loth, Fort Vanves 
was the point of attack. The garrison replied but 
feebly, and soon evacuated the fort, which re- 
mained vacant for some time, The commander, 



lOO THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

Durassier, until disabled by a shell, made the 
Federates hold the place at the point of the pistol. 
Some of the garrison, leaving the fort, fell into the 
hands of the Versaillese. A line of rifle pits for 
sharpshooters had been established 1,500 yards 
from the fort, and the gunners had been picked 
off as they worked the guns, and were subj ected 
to a terrific fire from the breaching batteries and 
mortars, which had prevented the garrison from 
sleeping for three successive night and completely 
incapacitated the defenders from a performance 
of their duties. The Versaillese, believing the 
fort to be mined, did not take possession. In 
the evening two battalions of Federates re- 
occupied the fortress and withstood a furious 
enfilade. 

On May loth at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
Bismarck forced on Pouyer-Quertier and Favre 
even more extortionate terms than were contained 
in the original peace stipulation. 

The Committee Central of the National Guard, 
the loth, added to the bewildering number of 
committees, by appointing a "Committee of Organ- 
ization," which proclaimed itself about to "give 
an irresistable impetus to the defence of Paris." 

On May nth, the Assembly at Versailles be- 
came turbulent, accused the Chiefs of the Govern- 
ment of cowardice and incapacity. Thiers, always 
diplomatic, asked for only eight days more to re- 
duce the Commune to submission. 

Federate Chief of Battalion I^e Moussu was 
delegated, with a body of troops, to take charge 
of the Bank of France. The loyal Guards were 
well entrenched; the usual excuses were poured 
into the ears of the Communists by the bank 
officials and Beslay, and the taking over was 
put off. 



MAY I-20 — THK FALI, OF THK FORTS. lOI 

Th& Journal Offidel on the 12th published a 
proclamation emanating from the Committee of 
Public Safety, which intimidated that Rossel had 
been bribed, blaming him for the surrender of 
Issy, and closing said: ''All the living force of 
the Revolution must group together for a supreme 
effort. Then and only then will triumph be 
assured." 

It was the intention of the city authorities to 
take over all movable property belonging to persons 
who had deserted Paris during the -Commune, 
and to a large extent this was done. The prop- 
ertied classes were anxious, in some cases almost 
frantic, to leave the city; many persons, by false 
passports, forgery and various devices, such as per- 
sonating coachmen, hiding in vegetable wagons, 
etc., did pass the ramparts. 

The cannon of Montmartre opened fire on 
Chateau de Becon and Gennevilliers, but the marks- 
manship was so defective that the Federate 
forces in Clichy suffered greatly from this bom- 
barbment. 

An unsuccessful attempt was made on the 
1 2th to bribe Dombrowski, the Versaillese recog- 
nizing in him a dangerous adversary. The attempts 
to bribe the Division Commanders were so persis- 
tent and so ably supported by persuasion and 
funds, that the Commune at this time detailed 
some of its members to personally associate them- 
selves with the commanders. Dereure was 
assigned to Dombrowski; Johannard to La Cecilia, 
and Meillet to Wroblewski. 

Suspicion seemed the order of tlie day. 
Henry Rochefort is credited wath saying : ' ' The 
Hotel de Ville distrusts the Department of War; 
the Department of War distrusts the Department 
of Marine; Fort Vanves distrusts Montroug^; 



I02 THK PARIS commune:. 

Rigault distrusts the Delegate of War; Vesinier dis- 
trusts me." 

By decree of the Commune, on the 13th, the 
demolition of Thiers' home in Paris was com- 
menced, it being levelled on that and succeed- 
ing days. The material was used by or sold for 
the benefit of the Commtine. By the decree the 
linen of the establishment was consigned to the 
hospitals to be used in the care of the wounded ; 
the pictures and books were sent to the National 
Museum and the Public Libraries; the other prop- 
erty was sold at public auction, the proceeds of 
which went to the widows and orphans of the 
victims of the war. 

Perry Smith, a wealthy citizen of Chicago, 
111., attempted to bid in the effects of M. Thiers to 
preserve them for the head of the Assembly 
government. This attempt was unsuccessful.* 

The Assembly afterwards decreed that the 
Theirs mansion should be replaced from the pub- 
lic funds. 

Thiers, signing himself Chief of the Gov- 
ernment of France, had posted a proclama- 
tion declaring that Paris was not being bom- 
barded. ** Whilst," as read the Commune's decree, 
'* each day women and children are victims of the 
fratricidal projectiles of the Versaillese troops." 

Communal elections had been held in France 
April 30th. A very large maj ority returned repre- 
sentatives not favorable to Versailles. f There 
was an attempt made to call the representatives of 
of the Communes together at Bordeaux; the Assem- 
bly seized correspondence, interdicted orders, inter- 
rupted telegraphic communication and were suc- 

*Washburn. 

tout of 35,000 Communes, only 8,000 wished to uphold the continued 
power of the Assemhly. —Sketchley. 



MAY I-20— THE FAI^L OF THE FORTS. IO3 

cessful in preventing the establishment of what 
might have proved another parliamentary body in 
France. This gathering was forbidden by the 
Assembly, on the basis of an Imperial law — a law 
of the same Empire which the men now com- 
posing the Assembly, almost without exception, 
had condemned during its entire existence.* 

At 2 p. m. on the 12th a parade of troops took 
place in Versailles. The chiefs were received by 
M. Thiers at the Palace, where the soldiers were 
addressed by M. Leon de Malleville, Vice-Presi- 
dent of the National Assembl}^ 

May 13th Ferre displaced Cournet as head of 
the Police Department in Paris. 

Some slight successes were credited to Dom- 
browski's division on May 13th. This was wel- 
come news to the Commune's sympathizers after 
days of unvaried reports of defeats. 

M. Lasnier, a Versaillese agent, was, on May 
13th, arrested with 30,000 francs upon his person, 
with which he had intended to bribe the 
Federates. 

A scheme was in operation in Paris to furnish 
tri-colored badges to friends of the Versaillese, in 
order to distinguish them from Communal sup- 
porters when the city was taken. A Madame Le 
Gros, engaged in the manufacture of the badges, 
was arrested. 

The Commune issued an order that each citi- 
zen should carry a card of identification. The 
difficulties of carrying out this order may be sur- 
mised, as nearly every citizen was a Federate, and 
each one had the power to arrest any man found 
without it. 

*M. Thiers, in a proclamation, insisted that the Assembly was the su- 
preme power having' been placed in office by the sanction of the people; 
the legitimacy of the Empire had been repeatedly denied by Thiers and most 
of his colleagues, though the powers of government had been derived from 
the same source. 



I04 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

Fort Vanves fell Sunday morning May i4tli 
and at 12:30 p. m. the news reached Versailles, 
where manifestations of joy were exhibited in the 
Assembly and by its supporters. The losses in 
killed and wounded had been very great to both 
parties about Vanves, and the final struggle was 
merciless and terrific* The defeated and escaping 
Federates, with some difficulty, made their way 
through quarries and underground passages to the 
city, the Montrouge gate and to the military road 
between the Vanves and Vaugirard gates.f 

It has been said that the courage of the 
soldier is the commonest trait in mankind. 
Whatever arguments might be advanced in this 
connection, the intrepidity displayed by the Com- 
munists in the holding of the forts surrounding 
Paris is worthy of particular mention. New earth- 
works were continually thrown up to protect the 
victorious progress of the Versaillese infantry and 
artillery. The encroachments of the breaching 
batteries on grounds before the fortifications were 
constant, and the huge guns were furnished with an 
abundance of ammunition and plentifully supplied 
with men from the increasing numbers of the be- 
seigers. A progressive system of rifle pits enabled 
the Versaillese sharpshooters to do great execution 
among the defenders at the guns. The city's forti- 
fications were, for the most part, inadequately 
manned and imperfectly attended with supplies. 

* Captains Rosheim and Durand de Villers of the Assembly's troops were 
killed at the taking of Vanves. 

t There were 60 2:uns and 10 mortars captured in Vanves. For 10 suc- 
cessive hours during Sunday those who escaped through the catecombs 
appeared in the city, fainting with hunger, dirty from their contact with 
the dingy walls of the receptacles for the dead and begrimmed with powder. 
These wanderers startled all who encountered them as they emerged. One 
party of 100 men, surprised a workman who was entering the catecombs to 
do some work. This party was led by a woman in officers clothes. She 
was the mistress of the Commandant of Vanves, and had for some time, 
previous to the fall of the fortification, assisted in pointing the guns and in 
all the work of defence. 




..i^li' %.:.^p'-< 



'i.AkLi 




MAY I-20 — the: FAI^I, OF THE) FORTS. IO5 

The continuous bombardment and overwhelming 
numbers of the assailants wearied the defenders and 
finally, one by one, the positions were wrung 
from the valor of the Federates. Fort Issy, 
once deserted by the troops of the Com- 
mune, was the scene of such bravery in the last 
occupation that it has called forth the praise even 
of the most malevolent supporters of what the 
world is pleased to call the representatives of 
''order." Overmatched in numbers, in skill and 
in equipment, their zeal seemed inextinguishable; 
the Commune's soldiers exhibited a desperate 
heroism in every department far superior to their 
discipline, leadership or armament. The neglect 
of the Delegates of War, and in many cases 
the hopeless inefficiency of the officers, was such 
as to damp the ardor of less enthusiastic and fear- 
less men. In spite of untoward circumstances, 
the courage of the common soldier certainly 
rose to an uncommon height in the defense of 
the environs of Paris during the siege of the 
Commune. 

The Military Commission of Control was 
changed in personnel on May 14th. Bergeret, 
Cournet, Geresme, I^edroit, Lonclas, Sicard and 
Urbain were the members, of which there were 
now seven in place of five. Some structures of 
uncertain utility were, under orders of the New 
Military Commission, built to assist in the defence. 
These formed a system of barricades, but of 
such a character that they were of but little value, 
although a large amount of material and great 
labor was expended in their construction. 

On the 14th of May several unfriendly 
journals were suppressed by decree of the Com- 
mune — The National^ Steele, Discussion, Corsaire, 
Avener National and Journal de Paris, 



io6 THK PARIS CQMMUNK.. 

The issue of the Cri du Peuple of May 
15th contained the following : " We received 
some days since information of the greatest 
gravity, and of the correctness of which we are 
now completely certain. Every measure has been 
taken to prevent the entry into Paris of any 
soldier of the enemy. The forts may be taken one 
after the other; the ramparts may fall. Not 07ie 
man will penetrate into the city. If M. Thiers is 
a chemist he will comprehend us." 

The owners of inflammables and explosives 
were ordered to turn them over to the Communal 
authorities. 

An address was published by Paschal 
Grousset in the Journal Officiel, calling on the 
sister cities to come to the assistance of Paris, 
"yet unwearied after two months of contest." 
It was particularly addressed to Lyons, Marseilles, 
Bordeaux, Toulouse, Nantes and Lisle. 

On May 15th, the differences of opinion in the 
Commune resulted in the declaration of an in- 
tended withdrawal by a minority from its sessions, 
and on May i6th this went into effect. The 
conflicts between the Committee of Public Safety, 
with full powers, and the Heads of Departments, 
acting singly or together as an Executive Com- 
mittee, were constant. The minority included 
Jourde, Varlin, Beslay, Thiesz, Andrieu and 
Frankel. They continued their duties in their de- 
partments, but stated that they did not wish, by 
attending the sessions, to uphold the continuance 
of the Committee of Public Safety. 

The Manifesto of the minority, after stating 
unbelief in the propriety of the Commune's 
abdicating its functions into the hands of and 
"irresponsible committee" said: "As for us, 
we, no less than the 'majority,' desire the ac- 



MAY I-20 — THE FAI,!, OF THE FORTS- IO7 

complishment of political and social reconstruction; 
but, contrary to its notions, we claim the right to 
be solely responsible for our acts before our 
electors without sheltering ourselves behind a 
supreme dictatorship which our mandate permits 
us neither to accept nor to recognize." The 
Manifesto further went on to state that the signa- 
tories, in order not to give rise to further dis- 
sension in the Council room, proposed retiring 
into their arrondissements, there to organize the 
resistance to the common enemy. The Manifesto 
concluded with a generous expression of the 
conviction that " we all, majority or minority, not- 
withstanding our divergences as to policy, pursue 
the same object, political liberty, and the emanci- 
pation of the workers." " Long live the Social 
Republic ! Long live the Commune ! ' ' 

The Manifesto bore the signatures of Beslay, 
Jourde, Theisz, Lefrancais, Gerardin, Vermorel, 
Clemence, Andrieu, Serailler, Longuet, Arthur 
Arnould, Victor Clement, Aurial, Ostyn, Frankel, 
Varlin, Arnold, Valles, Tridon, Courbet, and 
Pindy. Malon subsequently gave in his adhesion. 

The withdrawal of the minority at this time 
is unexplainable. They had all voted for the 
second committee. The issuing of the Manifesto 
was evidently seen to have been an egregious 
error, for the minority repented its publication, 
and joined in the deliberations of the Commune 
two days later. 

On the 1 2th of April the decree for the 
destruction of the Vendome Column was issued by 
the Commune. This Column was erected by 
Napoleon in 1806, in honor of the French arms. 
It was in the Doric order of architecture, copied 
after Trajan's Pillar at Rome. 



ro8 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

The Journal Officiel announced that the fall 
of the Column would take place at 2 o'clock on 
the afternoon of the i6th. The carrying out of 
the decree had been postponed from time to time; 
public interest was intense. lyong before the hour 
named, windows, roofs and streets in the vicinity 
were filled with people. Bands played inspiring 
airs. Guards patroled the Place Vendome and kept 
back the crowd. The first attempt to pull down 
the Column failed, owing to the breaking of the 
tackle; two or three men were injured in the 
accident. Immediate arrangements were made to 
continue the work, and shortly before 6 p. m. the 
Column fell, breaking into four parts in the air as 
it descended. A. bed of fagots and manure had 
been placed to receive the monument, and when 
it struck the ground an immense cloud of 
dust arose, though the shock (which it was feared 
would shatter the windows in the vicinity) was 
much less than was expected 

The Emperor's statue was separated from the 
column, and had fallen a little beyond the heap. 
It lay a wreck, with the head severed from the 
body, and one arm broken. 

The members of the Commune and their staff, 
in all about 200, attended on horseback. 

A few moments before the fall of the Column, 
Colonel Meyer, commanding in the Place Vendome, 
ascended the base, waved a small tri-colored flag, 
tore it into fragments and flung them to the 
ground. After the descent of the C olumn, Colonel 

Note— The height was 135 feet; the material cut stone; circumference 
at base, 35 feet: the base was 21 feet high and 20 feet square; 176 steps on a 
wmding staircase led to the top. Bas-reliefs in bronze, in 276 plates were 
cast from the metal of 1200 cannon taken from the Austrians and Russians 
in 1805— over 2,000 figures, weighing 1.800 000 pounds. The figures wound 
spirally about the monument; they circled the pillar 22 times and formed a 
twisted band of 840 feet; the figures were three feet high. The pedestal was 
covered upon three sides with figures of flags, cannons, etc. The Column 
was surmounted by a statue of iNapoleon 11 feet in height. The whole coat 
about $300,000. 



MAY I-20 — THE FAi^L OF THE FORTS. I09 

Meyer leaped upon the ruins and waved the 
red flag. 

Bergeret, decorated with red scarf and tassels, 
mounted on the pedestal, and thus addressed the 
crowd: 

"Citizens: — The 26th of Floreal will be 
memorable in our history. Thus we triumph 
over military despotism — that bloody negation of 
the rights of man. The first Empire placed the 
collar of servitude about our necks — it began and 
ended in carnage, and left us a legacy of a second 
Empire, which was finally to end in the disgrace 
of Sedan." 

Miot and Ranvier made speeches, the bands 
played, and the red flag floated over the i-^ 
fallen statue of the Imperial idol.* 

Thus was laid low the splendid monument 
to the glory of one despot and to the defeat of 
others, whose wars had been at the expense of 
the lives and efforts of the classes whose condition 
was not to be altered by either victory or defeat. 
The position of the proletariat did not change 
whatever the result in the struggle for power — 
whether hereditary Hapsburg murderer, descend-, 
ant of the ignoble Catherine or the Corsican who 
thought the world none too large for for his 
gigantic schemes of conquest, was triumphant. 
The Communists recognized these phases in the 
consideration of the question, and justly ordered 
the destruction of the Column. This act was 
symbolical of the sentiment for International 
peace in the Commune and the hatred of 
national pride in the spoiliation indulged in by 

*"And though in itself the destruction of the Vendome Column may 
seem hut a small matter, yet considering the importance attached gener<jll3% 
and in France particularly, to such symbols, the dismounting of that base 
piece of Napoleonic upholstery was another mark of the determination to 
hold no parley with the old jingo legends.— William Morris and E. Bel/or t 



no THB PARIS COMMUNE. 

the central figure in the First Empire. The 
demolition has been selected as the pet theme of 
bourgeois historians in examplifying the vandalism 
of the Communal government.* But there was a 
salutary lesson conveyed in its destruction not 
soon to be forgotten. No monument to perpetu- 
ate the glories of systematic murder has place in 
a true civilization, nor in any state where men 
have even turned their faces toward an intelligent 
social order. t 

By the destruction of the Vendome Column 
the regular soldiers were undoubtedly much 
irritated, considering it an insult offered to the 
military profession and spirit in France, and 
McMahon fed the dissatisfaction by a proclamation 
depicting the magnitude of the affront and in closing 
said: "We know how to give France another 
proof of bravery, devotion and patriotism." 

A public fete took place in Versailles at the 
same time the Vendome Column was being des- 
troyed. M. Grevy addressed the soldiers and com- 
plimented their bravery and devotion. 

* Paschal Grousset, in the Vengeur, said : "At last that Column 
Vendome is to be removed— a ridiculous aud monstrous trophy, erected at 
the command of a blind despot, to perpetuate the remembrance of his in- 
sensate conquests and his culpable glory -a monument, mareover, destitute 
of all artistic value— a cantata in bronze, a daub in metal instead of on 
canvas— in short, a wretched imitation of Trajan's column. Art will lose 
nothing by its destruction; good sense and patriotism will gain. For the 
fact is injudicious to leave under the eyes of the ignorant and the simple the 
stupid glorification of a cursed past. That Column of Vendome . . I 
have never been able to look at it without my heart bounding with indigna- 
tion and disgust. In the time of the Empire there was always to be seen 
hanging on the railings and rotting in the rain, innumerable wreaths of a 
flaunting yellow or a dirty white : Souvenir, Regrets, Gloire, Victoire. 
Without the sentinel who watched over this rubbish with jealous care, one 
might have taken the place for the traditional shop always to be found next 
door to the marblemason's at the gates of the cemeteries." 

tOn the 22d of May, 1S71, the National Assembly, decreed the 
fallowing law: "The Column of Place Vendome shall be rebuilt at the 
«,\. cnse of the State, ^^nd surmounted by a statue of France." 



MAY I-20 — THE FAI.I. OF THE FORTS. Ill 

Several journals were suppressed, among them 
one edited bj^ Vermorel, a member of the minority 
of the Commune, who had attacked the policy of 
the majority. 

On May 17th, 66 members of the Commune, 
attended the meeting. The time of the sitting 
was consumed to a large extent in untimely 
disputes. The minority, which had withdrawn 
from the sittings, now again, with a few excep- 
tions, took part in the proceedings. 

It was stated in this meeting that an ambu- 
lance woman attending some wounded Federates, 
had been repeatedly violated before being murdered 
by Versaillese. This called the attention of 

the Commune to the fact that their threat re- 
garding reprisals by executing the hostages 
seemingly had had a restraining effect on the 
murderous propensities of the Versaillese in the 
early part of April. Several members thought 
that the execution of ten of the hostages would 
be now in order; Miot proposed that five be at 
once shot. 

During this session the terrific explosion of 
the cartridge factory on the Avenue Rapp, which 
shook Paris and vicinity, took place. Its cause 
has never been definitely settled, but from the 
surrounding circumstances a reasonable con- 
clusion is that it was the work of paid agents 
of the Versaillese.* 

The devout and religious portion of Paris 
attributed the fearful explosion on the Avenue 

* The blowing up of the Rapp Cartridge Factory was charged to the ma- 
chinations of the Assembly's agents. The workpeople (several hundred in 
number) left on that afternoon •* i p. m. whereas it was customary to leave 
At 6 p. m (or 7 p. m). This circumstance may be considered evidence that 
the workers had been warned of impending danger. The explosion occurred 
About 5:45 p. m. ; many persons were in the building and all these were 
killed. Scores of persons in the vicinity were killed and wounded by the 
flying projectiles and fsdling fragments of the building. The estimated 
number of Aictims was 100. 



112 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

Rapp to a j udgment on the insurgents for their 
sacrilegious violation of the Church of Notre Dame 
des Victores. On the 17th of May, about five 
o'clock, or one hour before the explosion, the 
church was entered by I,e Moussu, at the head of 
the 159th battalion National Guard. The priests 
were finishing the service of the * 'Mois de Marie ' * 
when they were expelled. I^e Moussu arrested two 
vicars of the parish, the Abbes du Courroy and 
Amodru, and two members of the Council. The 
tabernacles were torn up, the alters demolished, 
the confessionals overturned, the marble slabs of 
the temple broken. The church was despoiled of 
all its ornaments. 

The position of the hostages was now ostensi- 
bly the concern of the religious people of the city. 
Petitions from various organizations were sent to 
Thiers to relieve the prisoners now believed to be 
in peril. 

M. Brome, a chemist engaged to assist the 
Communists, was found to be in the pay of the 
Versaillese. He had misled Parisel, who was 
deputed to look after the matter of explosives. 
Brome was arrested. 

* ' An arrangement had been entered into 
between the Government at Versailles and four 
members of the Commune, viz., Billioray, Serizier, 
Mortier, and Pilotell, to open the gate at the 
Point-du-Jour, for which service they secured 
25,000 francs each. These Communists were to 
appear at the gate at half-past one o'clock at night, 
disguised as National Guards; but, in the mean- 
time, Serizier took fright and refused to act, and 
when the troops appeared, they were forced to 
beat a precipitate retreat under a murderous fire 
from mitrailleuses."* 

*retridge. "^ 



MAY I-20— the: FAI.L OF THE FORTS. 1 13 

It would seem that in this instance that the 
the Communists had taken the Versaillese money 
(of which there is conflicting evidence) and in- 
stead of opening the gate, had ambuscaded the 
troops of the Assembly. 

The agents sent by the Versaillese to bribe 
the Communists had achieved much more indi- 
rectly than directly. By a series of visits and 
misrepresentations to the individual members of 
the Commune and to the other leaders in the 
movement, they had instilled into the minds of a 
very large number of those prominent in the up- 
rising a belief, that many foremost in the revolution 
were already fallen or about to fall before the 
pressure of the great temptations with which they 
were so incessantly and insidiously assailed. To 
this arousing of avarice and suspicion in the 
leaders may be traced a large number of the re- 
criminations, quarrels and arbitrary arrests of 
high officials, as well as the endless debates and 
apparently senseless opposition to all plans for 
definite action in the war. Thus, while the result 
of the systematic and unremitting efforts to de- 
bauch the leaders was very favorable to the Ver- 
saillese, the results show no act of treachery to 
the Commune by reason of bribery. 

Distrust was not confined to suspicion of one 
leader for another, for the Federate soldiery, 
knowing of the presence of the agents for bribery, 
blindly accused all officials with treachery and 
attributed the loss of hard fought battles to the 
connivance of their commanders. 

Heavy cannonading occurred on the i8th, 
but with no decisiv^e results. 

The portion of the railroads nearest the city 
held by the Communists, was utilized for defense. 
Machine guns mounted on cars were often used as 



114 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

effective engines of destruction whenever engage- 
ments took place near the railroad line. The Ver- 
saillese also followed this method of warfare to 
some extent, and extended the utility of the rail- 
road as a means of entering the city. 

The state of defence in the forts was de- 
plorable. They had but little communication with 
the interior and it was evident that there was no 
hope of a much longer continuance of their resist- 
ance. The Versaillese, however, seemed equally 
bent on knocking down the city's walls and ren- 
dering intolerable the existence of the garrisons 
in the fortifications. 

It developed in the course of the contest that 
the rag-pickers of Paris were hostile to the Com- 
mune. The scarcity of rags in the streets in- 
censed the followers of this occupation, who could 
evidently conceive nothing more felicitous than 
to scramble in the garbage for the cast off rags of 
the e order " classes. One writer saj^s: ''The rag- 
pickers exhibited a just hatred for the Commune, 
as the condition of Paris, under the Communal 
administration, was not such as to be favorable to 
the rag-pickers' business." 

The treatment of prisoners taken by the As- 
sembly's troops was characterized by the same 
excesses as were perpetrated during April; in fact 
the atrocities may be said to have increased as the 
success of the Versaillese was more pronounced. 

Delescluze published the following : ' * We 
point out to public indignation the conduct of 
the colonel commanding the 39th of the line. 
When^the Versaillese troops took possession of 
the Park of Neuilly, that infamous butcher ordered 
eighteen Federate prisoners to be shot, swearing 
that he would do the same with every man from 



MAY I-20— THE FAI.I. OF THE) FORTS. II5 

Paris that fell into his hands. Let him beware 
on his side of falling into theirs."^ 

After Fort Issy fell, it was reported by the 
Assembly's officers that large quantities of spirits 
in which tobacco had been soaked were found. 
It has also been stated that this decoction had 
been given to the Federates to make them ''fight- 
ing drunk"; it was also sagely added that the 
effect of the use of this stimulant was to bring 
almost immediate death when wounded to all who 
used it, as "all Federates found in the fort were 
dead." This story has not been well considered by 
those who seek to decry the courage or make 
prominent the dissipation and ignorance of the 
Federates. Many writers have retold the tale, but 
apparently not one of them has recognized that 
the effect of tobacco and spirits on the human 
organism is to bring an almost instantaneous and 
deep sleep, (which would incapacitate from any 
.ic^ion for a very considerable time,) followed 
by a deathly sickness as a result of the poisonous 
potion. On the other hand, it has never been 
advanced as even a possibility that this liquor had 
been blended with tobacco for the purpose of 
bringing illness and inaction upon the soldiery of 
the captors, in whose hands it was left. The fact 
that no wounded were found speaks well for the 
humaneness of the evacuators of Issy, as they well 
knew the bayonet of the Versaillese spared neither 
the wounded nor the dying. The Federates had 
been told what the fate of the defenders of Fort 
Issy would be unless they surrendered. f 

The defence of Issy shows none of the 
characteristics of being garrisoned by men in- 

" Delescluze issued an order forbidding: all officers of the National Guard 
to a i}iear in their battalions with a musket in hand, as for the pleasures of 
f .ijiL: Ml tne Versaillese troops they neglected their command. 

t Page 86. 



II 6 THK PARIS COMMUNB. 

capacitated by dissipation. Soldiers generally 
recognize and admire bravery in antagonists; not 
so the Versaillese. 

On May 20th, some Federates demanded adr 
mittance at the gate of the residence of the United 
States Minister. They were denied entrance by 
a woman in charge, and went away threatening 
to come back and break down the gates if they 
should discover that they had been deceived 
as to the occupant. Paschal Grousset, on being 
notified of this occurrence, immediately sent 
orders expressly forbidding a renewal of the 
attempt by Federates.* Mr. Washburne made 
much of this affair and, as a result, the German 
General de Fabrice sent a bullying letter to 
Paschal Grousset, demanding the surrender to the 
Germans of the Federates concerned in the affair. 
Grousset replied courteously that he had taken 
such steps in the matter as were possible; that the 
apprehension of the Federates was difficult, and 
that he had sent a letter of apology to the United 
States Minister, etc. 

Paschal Grousset was a young man of frank and cordial man- 
ners. t He was born in Corsica. At the time of the Commune 
he was known as one of the foremost radical journalists in Paris, 
being editor of the ilfarsei"H«ise. He had also edited L'AffrancM, and 
rt-as a contributor to many periodicals. After the fall oj the Com- 
mune, he was sentenced to deportation for life, but escaped 
fx'om New Caledonia in 1874, and passed through San I'rancisco en 
route for London, where he gained a livelihood for some time by 
teaching French It was while arranging a duel between Pierre 
IJonaparte and Paschal Grousset [whom he represented] that Victor 
Noir was murdered by Pierre Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon III. 
Grousset as Delegate of Foreign Affairs, thoroughly protected the 
property and person of all foreigners, and no premises which 
bore the seal that signified their occupancy by foreigners was ever 
molested in any manner. The conduct of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs was in every respect marked by dignity and perspicacity. 
Paschal Grousset, throughout his entire life, has proved himsel^ 

* Washburne. t Washburne. 



MAY I-20 — THE FAI,!. OF THE FORTS. II7 

to be a man of extraordinary talent. In politics, journalism and 
literary work he has been successful.* His book "Studies in Ire- 
land " has received great praise. 

Defeated in their attempt to hold a Congress 
of the Communal representatives at Bordeaux, a 
number of them met at Lj^ons. 

Delegates from this Congress held at Lyons 
arrived in Paris on the 20th of May, bringing a 
declaration addressed to M. Thiers and the Com- 
mune, in which it was affirmed that the Republic 
was the only possible and legitimate Government 
and Communal autonomy the sole basis of the 
Republic. The declaration demanded that hos- 
tilities should cease, that the National Assembly, 
whose mission was at an end, should be dissolved, 
that the Commune should also be dissolved, that 
municipal elections should be held in Paris, and 
that elections for a Constituent Assembly should 
be ordered for the whole of France. In the event 
of these propositions being rejected, either by the 
National Assembly or the Commune, the Lyons 
delegates would hold the body rejecting them 
responsible before the nation. The declaration 
was signed by delegates of the Municipal Councils 
of 16 departments. t The propositions were 
reasonable enough, and should have been accept- 
able at any time to men who desired peace, but 
the Assembly had other ends in view. In fact, 
the Versaillese seemed to fear that a way to peace 
would be found in some manner other than the 
carrying out of their programme. Jules Simon 
voiced this fear when he wrote: "The most 
reasonable put Versailles and Paris on the same 
level; they proposed the simultaneous abdication 
of the ^Assembly and the Commune, and the 
election of a new Assembly. This was to propose 

* Grousset is now [1898], a Deputy in the French Chamber, 
t Lissagaray says tliis declaration was signed by 20 delegates. 



Il8 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

that law should be abandoned and revolt legalized. 
These attempts were made so often and under so 
many forms, that it v^OiS feared the good sense of the 
people would be affected by them." 

" The Republican Union for the Rights of 
Paris" sent delegates to Thiers on May 20th. This 
action was taken with the sanction of the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety. Thiers absolutely re- 
fused to see the delegates, thus, for the first time, 
definitely rejecting overtures of peace. 

There were at this time more than 200 priests 
and as many, or perhaps more, of others — gen 
d 'arnies, sergents de ville, etc., held as hostages by 
the Commune. Examinations were now given, and 
36 of the hostages were held, though a much 
larger number were examined. 

Henri Rochefort attempted to escape on May 
2oth. He was arrested at Meaux, and taken to 
Versailles, where it was with difficulty that he was 
protected from the populace, who clamored for 
his life. 

Rochefort [Corate] Victor Henri de Rochefort Lucay was born Jan. 
30, 1830; attempted to study medicine, failed; to teach school, same 
result; appointed in 1857 copying clerk at the Hotel de Ville; 
wrote dramatic criticisms for the newspapers; was appointed sub- 
inspector of the fine arts at Paris, 1861 ; one of the editors of i^t^aro, 
wrote vaudeville and under nom de plume wrote a historical romance 
"La Marquise de Courcelles " in 1859; has edited Lu Lanteme, 
Marseillaise, Mot d'Ordre and other journals. He is somewhat noted 
as a duelist, and is an art critic and sculptor. 

Rochefort was sought out in prison where he was confined for 
political offenses, and made a member of the Government of the 
National Defence; not from the fact that the members of this 
government shared the extreme views of Rochefort, but because they 
considered it safer to have a man of his vigor, abilities and influence 
on the inside than on the outside. 

A nobleman by birth, he early began revolutionary teaching, 
and continually jeopardized his life and liberty by inflaming the lower 
classes against their oppressors by the means of his powerful pen. 

He was one of the most vigorous and brilliant writers during the 
Commune, constantly advising extreme measures in the destructiou of 



MAY I-20 — THE FAI^I. OF THE FORTS. IIQ 

ft 
buildings and the execution of the hostages, but of a singular and 
uncertain disposition, not calling forth the confidence of the Com- 
munal authorities, by whom he was constantly under suspicion. At 
the destruction of the Vendome Column, while viewing the demolition 
from his carriage, he was pointed out as the next prominent person 
who would be arrested. After his return from exile, he became one of 
the most distinguished journalists of his time. 

The Bank of France now believed, and with 
reason, that the great struggle was about to come. 
It protected its treasures by burying them in the 
lower cellars of the building and blocked the stair- 
ways with sand. The bank officials, however, 
still continued to deliver sums to the Commune. 

Passy, a staunch loyal district, was entirely 
deserted by the Federates. Notwithstanding it 
was conceded that the Versaillese would attack 
the city on the West, that side of Paris was less 
supported than the others, as the cannonading 
made its occupation uncomfortable and dangerous. 

There were clashes of authority between the 
Committee Central, elected by the National Guards 
and the Commune, elected from the political 
divisions of the city. The Committee of Public 
Safety was another factor in the difficulties, and as 
a creation of the Commune was supposed to hav'e 
full power. But the Committee Central, as the 
representatives of the military, would not be 
secondarily considered. These warring elements? 
led to not a few of the blunders which hastened 
the fall of the Commune. There really seemed 
to be four military authorities — all claiming to be 
chief. The Committee of Public Safety, Delegate 
of War, Military Commission and Committee Cen- 
tral — a state which could but result in disaster. ' 

Georges Veysset, an agent of the Versaillese 
had attempted, through the instrumentality of a 
woman, to bribe Dombrowski to deliver over the 
fortifications from the Porte du Jour to Porte 



I20 THS PARIS COMMUNE. 

Wagram. The sums stated to have been offered 
1,500,000 francs, (about $300,000) which was to 
be divided between the general and his staff. 
The woman, whose name was Muller, betrayed 
the agent, who was arrested May 20th under 
orders from Ferre. Veysset and his mission were 
known to Rigault, who had been desirous of his 
apprehension for sometime previous to the arrest. 

The National Guard had originally been 
somewhat loose in its organization and lax in its 
discipline, but in the days after Cluseret's sweep- 
ing orders, the ranks of the battalions had been 
filled with scarcely a regard to age, height or any 
of the qualifications for association general in 
military formation. This not only gave the 
Federates a very odd appearance as soldiers but 
greatly decreased their efficiency. The appear- 
ance of uniform of the soldiers of the line in the 
ranks of the Federates was frequent. This would 
indicate desertions from the regulars to the 
Communists, but such was not the case; but few 
desertions took place after the troops w^ere hurried 
out of the city March 1 8th- 19th. The Communists 
had found a very large number of uniforms of the 
regular army in warehouses, and many Federates 
had been clothed in them, doubtless to carry to 
the populace and soldiery the idea that the defence 
was being strengthened by additions from the 
trained soldiers of the opposition. This trick, 
however effective it might have been upon the 
friends of the Communists, was the death warrant 
for a very large majority of those who perpetrated 
it, as all persons taken in this uniform were in- 
stantly shot as deserters. 

But a few hundred horses were at the dis- 
posal of the Commune, while the Versailles army 
had an abundance of cavalry, and outside the city, 



MAY I-20 — THE FALI, OF THE FORTS. 121 

the horse of their opponents was exceedingly active 
in cutting off and capturing the Federates while 
retreating. 

Whatever else was misunderstood or not con- 
ceived by the Commune and its supporters, it had 
been for some time tacitly acknowledged by its 
shrewdest observers that the artisans and laborers 
that made up the ranks of the Federates were not 
capable of achieving success in war when engaged 
in conflicts with those who made war a business. 

"The army of the Commune, was to a 
great extent composed of married men with 
families; and we need not, therefore, wonder 
that it was deficient in the practice, the stability 
under fire, and especially the discipline of the 
regular army. Its officers had neither the mili- 
tary knowledge which study alone can give, nor 
the habit of command or experience, only to be 
acquired by long practice. There was no cavalry, 
and the artillery was very inferior in comparison 
with that of the enemy. The artillerymen, being 
National Guards, were but insufficiently instructed. 
The conductors of the teams did not understand 
how to manoeuvre, and the horses, sadly deficient 
in number, had never been under fire. Such 
were the principle causes of the inferiority of the 
army of the Commune."* The ammunition and 
victualling departments were badly arranged; im- 
perfect as was the administration duiing the Ger- 
man siege, it was even worse after the i8th of 
March; and that, for meeting the "disciplined 
troops, old and experienced generals, and skilled 
officers of Versailles," the Commune had only a 
raw army, led by young generals inexperienced 
in warfare, whose audacity, courage and genius 
had to stand in place of study, art and practice. 

♦Vesinier. 



122 mn PARIS COMMUNE. 

" With the exception of a few former officers, 
lieutenants or captains, and the Poles like the 
two Dombrowskis, Wroblewski, Okolowitz and 
others, the officers . . were only civilians 
dressed in a uniform."* 

Had Generals McMahon, I,adrimault and 
Cissey been put in a position where they were ex- 
pected to at once do the work of Bergeret, printer; 
Eudes, apothecary's clerk; or Duval, ironfounder, 
they would probably have been quite as unsuc- 
cessful as were the latter named as military 
leaders. 

On this subject, Plato treats in his treatise on 
"The Republic." Socrates is supposed to be 
representing a conversation he had with Glaucon: 

" ' We agreed, if you remember,' said I, ' that 
it was impossible for a single person to practice 
many arts well.' ' True,' said he. . ' What, then,' 
said I, 'do not struggles in war seem to require 
art ? ' ' Very much so,' said he. ' Ought we then 
take more care of the shoemaking art than of that 
warfare ! ' ' By no means.' ' But we charged the 
shoemaker not to attempt to be at the same time 
a husbandman, or a weaver, or a builder in order 
that the work of shoemaking might be well done; 
and in like manner we allotted to each of the 
others a single calling, to which each was adapted 
by nature, and at which each, by abstaining from 
the rest, and applying to it the whole of his life, 
and not neglecting the proper opportunities, 
would be likely to work well. And can a person 
who takes a spear, or other warlike arms and in- 
struments, instantly become an expert combatant 
in ' an armed encounter, or aught else relating to 
war.'" 

♦Jules Simon. 



MAY I-20 — THE FAI^L OF THE FORTS. 1 23 

The bombardment of the city was steadily 
increasing, and the intention of the beseigers to 
go to any lengths in this was shown, notwithstand- 
ing the solemn statement of Thiers some weeks 
before, that ** Paris would ;2^/ be bombarded." 
Great preparations were made for cannonading the 
Gates St. Cloud and Auteuil by Forts Valerien, 
Issy and Vanves, and by batteries situated at 
advantageous points. 

Stronger became the forces and efforts of the 
Versaillese. On the i6th, a cannonading duel 
took place between the batteries at Trocadero and 
Fort Valerien, in which the former was vanquished. 
''Nothing could live under the terrible fire of 
Fort Valerien and from Montretout. Military men 
told me the battery at Montretout was the most 
terrible the world had ever seen."* Scarcely a 
shot from Fort Valerien went astray. It is said 
the Arc d'Triomphe was struck 27 times in 
one day. Meudon, Sevres, Courbevoie, Becon, 
Asnieres, Les Moulineaux, Moulin-Saquet and 
three forts had been taken by the Versaillese. 
The gates and walls on the West were trembling 
under the terrific shower of heavy projectiles. 
Montmartre was subj ected to a severe bombardment 
during these days, but replied stoutly and was 
the hope of the Federates as a stronghold. 

''Serious and competent observers did not 
fail to perceive that the progress of the Versail- 
lists, though slow — often very slow — was none 
the less sure. Little by little did they advance 
their positions against the forts and fortications of 
Paris. On the other hand, the material and per- 
sonnel of the Versaillists were daily reinforced. 
Batteries, .siege and marine pieces, mortars, how- 
itzers and field-artillery, were sent every day from 

* Washburue. 



124 '^H^ PARIS COMMUNE. 

the strongholds and seaports to Versailles. Re- 
cruits, also, arrived daily from the provinces, or 
from Prussia, to swell the ranks of its army; the 
prisoners of the French army in Germany were 
allowed to depart in great numbers to augment 
the forces of Versailles; whilst those of the Coniy 
niune could not be recruited from the outside, and 
were constantly diminishing by losses. Every 
day the Versaillists advanced their works of 
attack nearer to the forts, and contracted their 
line of investment. By the help of their reinforce- 
ments of artillery, new batteriers were erected 
daily, and their fire grew stronger and stronger." 

"Under such circumstances, the Commune 
had not only to renounce the hope of conquering 
the army of the Versaillese Government outside 
the ramparts, but likewise to look forward to an 
attack under the walls and in the streets of Paris. 
Since the defeat of the provincial towns which 
had sided with the Commune, only one chance re- 
mained for Paris — that of annihihating the Ver- 
saillists in its streets. This was where the final 
struggle, which would decide not only the triumph 
or defeat of the Commune, but also of the Revolu- 
tion, or counter-revolution, would have to be 
made. . . . The people of Paris knew that all 
their great battles had been won, and the Revolu- 
tion made triumphant, behind the barricades; and 
they believed they would again be victorious be- 
hind their ramparts of stone and earth."* 

The days of street fighting were to be the 
days of victory. Upon what this too prevalent 
belief was based is unknown- For though every 
effort of bravery and fortitude has been shown in 
the street fighting in Paris and elsewhere, the 
definiteness and discipline of regular troops have 

*Vesinier. 



MAY I-20 — THE FAIvI. OF THE FORTS- 1 25 

defeated entrenched revolutionists in a very great 
majority of instances. How a semi-organized 
force,^ disheartened by a series of defeats, were ex- 
pected to hold against a victorious and over- 
whelmingly larger army, is beyond comprehen- 
sion. Yet Paschal Grousset, Delescluze and others 
of the leaders exhibited the utmost confidence in 
the ability of the Federates to hold control of the 
interior. Every victory by the Versaillese army 
had increased the confidence of the Assembly's 
support, while on the other hand the Communal 
sympathy ebbed away as the sureness of defeat 
became apparent. 

Serious attempts were made to punish all Fed- 
erates who were derelict in their military duties.f 

A semicircular line of attack was held against 
the Federals outside the city. With but slight 
cessations this line had been steadily pressed 
toward the ramparts since the defeat of the sortie 
of April 3d. The Versaillese made heavy gains 
May 19th and 20th, and definite plans were pre- 
pared for an assault at the gates on the West. 

* Rosscl, in his posthumous papers, describes them as ragamuffins, drunk- 
ards and scamps, "who pretended to deliver the country from the rule of 
the sword, and could only substitute for it the rule of delirium tremens." 
Rossel, during his short term as Delegate of War, attempted the role of 
martinet and the National Guard, never too obedient to authority, became 
loud in their denounciations of his attempts at show of power, and he in 
return, generally depreciates their valor. 

t The court-martial presided over by Colonel Gois tried the Lieutenant- 
Colonel Daviot and Commandant Va'nostat of the 115th battalion of the 
National Guard, for having, without any superior orders, abandoned their 
posts at the Convent of Issy, thereby allowing the position to be occupied 
by the enemy. It appeared that the battalion was seized with a panic and 
took to flight towards Paris; it had lost 26 men the night before in an 
attack badly conducted, and had become sadly disorganized. The two 
prisoners attempted to stop the men, but without effect; and, finding that 
they could not induce them to return, had at last yielded to the current and 
•proceeded themselves towards the gates of the city. Several witnesses de- 
posed to the general good conduct and courage of the prisoners, but the 
court condemed Daviot to 15 years, and Vanostat to ten years imprisonment; 
further it ordered that the 115th battalion be struck off the list, and the men 
drafted into other bodies of the same iorce.—Fetridge, 



126 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

VI. 

May 21-27— The Bloody Week. 



Sunday, May 21 — Aside from the discordant 
noises and the scenes and smoke of war, Paris had 
never seen a more pleasant day. The sun and sky 
were bright and beautiful. The crowds on the 
streets viewed with curious composure the prepar- 
ations for internal defence. The work on barri- 
cades and the transferring of war material made 
an interesting spectacle. A body of sailor-artillery- 
men on horseback were manoeuverd about the 
city in the forenoon. This force was equipped and 
brought forward with a hope that it might offset 
the cavalry of the enemy. Its undisciplined 
ranks were not able to stand before the Versaillese, 
from whom they fled in the afternoon, scarcely 
striking a blow for their cause. They were the 
first force brought against the invaders inside the 
city walls. 

The Versaillese first entered Paris by the 
St. Cloud gate, the defence of that portion of 
the rampart being entirely neglected. About 11 
o'clock in the forenoon, an engineer named 
Ducatel, who had before this day given information 
of value to the Versaillese, made known to General 
Douai,^ jpivision Officer in charge of the force 
outside this gate, the condition of* "the place. 
Ducatel had discovered the desertion of the St. 
Cloud gate, waved his handkerchief on a cane from 
the ramparts and attracted the attention of some 



THE BLOODY WEEK. 1 27 

officers who were reconnoitering. A temporary 
bridge being constructed over the moat, the gate 
was soon opened and the troops entered the city. 
Ducatel was suspected, even after giving himself 
into the hands of the Versaillese, and was 
threatened with instant death if he was found to 
be misleading them. To show his good faith, he 
offered to guide or lead a force against the Federates 
at any point considered best by the Versaillese 
commanders. 

General Douai strongly occupied Porte St. 
Cloud and vicinity. General Vinoy took pos- 
session of the important post of Trocadero. A 
few Federates were captured here, and with 
scarcely a shot at this point, the Versaillese were 
securely ensconced in one of the best positions in 
the city. The troops on the interior of the ram- 
parts opened other gates. Ladrimault's forces 
entered by the Gates Passy and Auteuil and ad- 
vancing inside the ramparts, captured some hun- 
dreds of prisoners Many of these prisoners were 
shot when captured, and a member of the Com- 
mune, at II p. m. riding on horseback through 
the Rue Beethoven, was first apprised of the 
presence of the enemy by his horse shying from 
the corpses of the dead Federates lying in rows 
before the walls where they had fallen after being 
shot to death. General De Cissey, during the 
night, entered at the Vaugirard and Montrouge 
gates, which gave a huge semicircle of the city's 
defences into the hands of the Versaillese. The 
line of the attacking force inside the walls took 
the same form that it had held on the outside. 
From that moment of entrance the movement of 
the crescent-shaped formation of the Versaillese 
force was steadily progressive. 



128 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

The Garden of the Tuilleries was, the scene 
of a grand concert given for the benefit of the 
widows and orphans .of the National Guard, 
Speeches were made and a thousand musicians 
played the Marseillaise and other revolutionary 
airs. An officer, in the midst of the enjoyable 
occasion, announced a concert of the same charac- 
ter for the afternoon of the following Sunday. 
What a different scene the Sunday of a week after 
presented ? Although the unceasing bombard- 
ment of the city and the carelessness of its defend- 
ers should have been sufficient indications of a 
great change in the situation, none could be pre- 
pared for such horrors as awaited them in the next 
days. 

Sunday afternoon's meeting was the last 
sitting of the Commune. Before the time of the 
next meeting the cry prevailed "each man to his 
arrohdissement " and the general organization of 
the city on this day practically ceased. A few 
members of the Commune met Monday forenoon 
and discussed some matters informally. There 
was a lack of solidarity which boded ill. 

Cluseret was on trial before the Commune 
when Billioray rushed in about 3 p. m. and told 
them of the enemy's entrance to the city. The 
trial, the evidence in which consisted principally 
of assertions by Miot without tangible foundation, 
(relating in part to the desertion of Issy by Megy) 
was hastily concluded and Cluseret was acquitted. 
He had been imprisoned ever since Megy had 
deserted ' Issy. He was given a command at 
Montmartre the next day. Delescluze, at the War 
Office, when informed of the enemy's entrance, 
was calm and predicted that the street fighting 
would be favorable to the Commune forces. 



THE BLOODY WEEK. 1 29 

The lax discipline of the Federates here faded 
away to no discipline. Delescluze issued a pla- 
card declaring "the bare arms of the people to be 
a match for military strategists, etc.," a most un- 
wise publication, tending to loosen the little hold 
organization then had on the Federates.* 

Other placards were posted casting doubt on 
the truthfulness of reports, and it was not until 
late at night that the enemy's presence was gener- 
ally conceded. Henri Proudhomme, Chief of the 
General Staff, made a hasty investigation and con- 
cluded that the Versaillese were probably not in 
Paris and a placard was issued to that effect. As 
soon as it was definitely known that the troops 
were in the city, Montmartre began shelling the 
Place de I'Etoile and vicinity. 

The Versaillese forces advanced warily into 
the city. It was confidently believed by them 
that the streets had been mined to blow up the 
Assembly's troops as they marched in. But as 
they proceeded uninterrupted by any indications 
of this condition of affairs, they grew bolder and 
the days following Monday found a constant in- 
crease in confidence. The ease with which the 

♦There is great difiference in statement regarding the numerical strength 
of the Federates. 

"JSearly 300,000 National Guards, all armed were in the streets." ( March 
1st. ) — Jules Simon. If this statement be true, great desertions must have 
occurred, as Cluseret's reports in April show about 125,000 men on the rolls. 

" Talking with a gentleman (late in March) connected with the foreign 
oflBce on the subject of the state of things in Paris, I told him I had no 
doubt but that General Sheridan with a regiment of cavalry could clean out 
the whole insergent forces."— F'as/iftMrne. Seemingly a 'very thoughtless 
observation, as the Communal forces certainly numbered over 100,000 men. 

" It (the Commune) could then boast of 80^000 effective men" [May 4th ]. 
—Washhurne. 

There were at least 100,000 men in the ranks of the Cammune on 
April 1st. This force was so diminished bj^ death, capture and desertion 
that on May 20th the Commune's available, defenders probably did not 
exceed 60,000. 

On April 24th Thiers had stated the Assembly's force to number 150,000 
men, and this had been considerably augmented by May 1st; 100,000 Ver- 
saillese were inside the walls by Monday at noon. 



130 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

entrance had been made and the surrender of the 
important Trocadero and the other strong points, 
strengthened the invaders in the belief that they 
were to be blown up or ambuscaded. 

It was the avowed irtention of the Parisians 
to make a second Moscow of Paris rather than re- 
sign it to the Prussians, and Trocliu, when in 
charge, had furnished petroleum to assist in the 
work of destruction. This same petroleum is said 
to have been used to aid in the firing of the build- 
ings of the city by the Federates on the advance of 
the Versaillese. 

The fact that a successful plan for the com- 
plete demolition of the city was absent from the 
Communist scheme of defense, is but another 
proof of the incapacity of the Communal leaders 
to wage systematic warfare. 

Archibald Forbes, the noted war corres- 
pondent of the London Daily News, says:* 

" I entered the Chateau de la Muette. Dom- 
browski gave me a hearty and cordial greeting, 
and at once offered me permission to attach myself 
to his staff permanently, if I could accept the posi- 
tion as it disclosed itself. ' We are in a deplorably 
comic situation here,' said he with a smile and a 
shrug, * for the fire is both hot and continuous.' 
Dombrowski was a neat, dapper little fellow of 
some five feet four inches, dressed in a plain, dark 

*Mr. Forbes had arrived from London when the most stringent regula- 
tions regarding ingress and egress were in operation, and went to the 
German headquarters to see if they could assist him in entering the city. 

i " The Crown Prince of Saxony was at luncheon when I reached the 
chateau in whiclihe had his quarters. He roared with laughter when I told 
him how the gen d'arme had served me. " These people at Versailles," he 
explained, *' have been leaving the mouth of the trap open all these weeks, 
and pretty near all the turbulent blackguards of Europe have walked into it. 
Now they think all the blackguards are inside, and since they are just about 
to begin business, they have stopped both ingress and egress. Still," he 
continued musingly, "I am surprised that they didn't let you in!" The 
Prince has something of a sardonic humor and he made his point; and I for 
my part made him a bow in acknowledgment of his compliment." ^ 
[Mr. Forbes gained admittance to the city the next day, 21st]. 



THE BI.OODY WEEK. I31 

uniform with very little gold lace. His face was 
shrewd — acuteness itself; he looked as keen as a 
file, and there was a frank, honest manner with 
him, and a genial heartiness in the grip of his 
hand. He was the sort of man you take to in- 
stinctively, and yet there were ugly stories about 
him. He wore a slight mustache and rather a 
long chin-tuft, which he was given to pulling as 
he talked. He spoke no English, but talked 
German fluently. His staff consisted of eight or 
ten officers, chiefly plain young fellows who 
seemed thoroughly up to their work, and with 
whom, not to be too pointed, soap and water 
seemed not so plentiful as was their consummate 
coolness. Dombrowski ate, read and talked all at 
once, while one could hardly hear his voice for the 
din of the cannonade and the whistle of shells. A 
battalion commandant, powder-grimed and flushed, 
rushed into the room and exclaimed in great agita- 
tion that the Versaillese troops were streaming 
inside the ejiciente at the gate of Billancourt, which 
his command had been holding. The cannonade 
from Issy had been so fierce that his men had been 
all under shelter, and when the Versaillists came 
suddenly on, and they had to expose themselves 
and deliver musketry-fire, the shells fell so thick 
and deadly that they bolted, and then the Versail- 
lists had carried the gate, and now held it. His 
men had gone back in a panic. He had beaten 
'Cii^xn-sacre 7iofn^ etc. --with the flat of his sword 
till his arm ached, but he had not succeeded in 
arresting the panic, and his battalion had now 
definitely forsaken the encientf.. The Versaillists 
were massing in large numbers to strengthen the 
force that had carried the gate of Billancourt, 
Dombrowski waited until the gasping officer had 
exhausted himself, then handed him a glass of 



132 ^ THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

wine with a smile, and with a serene nod turned to 
his salad, and went on eating it composedly and 
reflectively. At length he raised his head: ' Send 
to the Ministry of Marine for a battery of seven- 
pounders; call out the cavalry, the tirailleurs (of 
some place or other, I did not catch), and send 
such and such battalions of national guards. Let 
them be ready by seven o'clock, I shall attack 
with them, and lead the attack myself.' The 
lieutenant suggested that he might not be able to 
get a whole battery. 'Bring what you can, then,' 
said Dombrowski; ' two, three or four guns, as 
many as you can, and see that the tumbrils are in 
order. Go and obey! ' ' Go and obey ' was the 
formula of this peremptory, dictatorial and yet 
genial little man. He had a splendid commanding 
voice, and one might have judged him accustomed 
to dictating, for he would break off, to converse 
and take up the thread again. 

The shell-iire was increasing. Dombrowski 
told me that the Chateau de la Muette belonged 
to a friend of Thiers, and that therefore, although 
it was known to be his headquarters, there were 
orders that it should be somewhat spared. All I 
to say is, that if there were any efforts made to 
spare it, the Versaillist gunners were very bad 
shots. Dombrowski was standing, sword in hand, 
dictating three orders at once. He stopped to ask 
me what I thought of the prospect I had looked 
down on from the roof. I could not conscien- 
tiously express the opinion that it was reassuring 
from the Federal point of view. ' I am just dicta- 
ting an order,' said Dombrowski, * which will in- 
form Paris that I abandon the enciente from the 
Porte d'Auteuil to the river. If you are a military 
man, you must recognize the fact that our loss of 
Fort Issy has made virtually untenable that sec- 



THE BI^OODY WEEK. 1 33 

tion of the continuous fortification of which I 
speak. Its province was to co-operate with, not 
to resist, Fort Issy. For several days past I have 
foreseen the necessity of which I am now inform- 
ing Paris, and I have prepared a second line of 
defense, of which the railway viaduct defines the 
contour, and which I have made as strong as the 
endente and more easily tenable. Yes; the Versail- 
lists are in possession of that gate you heard the 
flurried commandant talk of. They may have it 
and welcome; the possession of it will not help 
them very much. But, all the same, I don't mean 
to let them keep their hold of it wi%out giving 
them some trouble, and so I am going to make an 
attack on them to-night. As like as not they will 
fall back from their occupancy of to-day. and then 
they will have the work to do over again to-mor- 
row. But I am not going to fight with serious 
intent to retrieve this condemned section of ejicientey 
as the order I have been dictating for publication 
will show; but merely, as I may say, for fighting's 
sake. There is plenty of fighting still in our 
fellows, especially when I am leading them.' 

Dombrowski smiled as this news was commu- 
nicated to him, and I thought of his ' second line 
of defence,' and of his assurance that 'the situa- 
tion was not compromised.' Dombrowski and his 
staff were very active and daring, and the heart of 
the men seemed good."* 

Dombrowski led an attack on the enemy in 
the space between the enciente and the railway on 
the night of the 21st. An attempt was made to 
storm the Cemetiere des Paurves; this was a tem- 
porary success, but heavy firing from various 
sources disconcerted the Federates. They re- 

♦Cent'ary Magazine, October, 1892. 



t34 ^HK PARIS COMMUNK. 

treated, were routed, and shot and shell chased 
the fugitives, as they fled toward Montmartre; 
they met troops coming to reinforce t.dem; impart- 
ing to these their terror, the fleeing Guards were 
j oined in their rout by their allies. The Federates, 
many of whom were undoubtedly under the 
influence of stimulants, fired their chassepots 
indiscriminately as they ran. 

Assi, while on a tour of inspection during 
the night, was arrested near the Porte de Jour. 
Amouroux,who accompanied him, was also taken, 
and both hurried off to Versailles. 

" The working engineer Assi, one of the chiefs of this great 
revolt— a man without instruction or judgment, but of an energetic 
character, has avowed that he never read hut one book— the 
^'Revolution of Italy," a work by Edgar Quinet, which he was in- 
capable of understanding by reason of his inadequate information, 
but by which his imagination was much affected."* 

The character above given to Assi by an unfriendly writer does 
not in the least represent him. He was an honest, fearless man. 
His conservative opinion freely expressed, regarding the propriety 
of the sortie of April 3d was the cause of his being imprisoned. He 
headed a strike at the mines at Creuzot. His while life was one of 
strenuous and intelligent effort to better the condition of the workers. 
He was continually placed in positions of responsibility and honor 
in the organizations with which he was identified, and in no instance 
is there a report on anything but a proper fulfillment of duty. Assi 
was a very prominent member of the International Workingmen's 
Association. 

Monday, May 22 — Early in the morning the 
interior movement for the Commune's subjection 
was systematically begun. The militar}^ arrange- 
ment was methodical and thoroughly successful; 
scarcely a belligerent attacked the rear of the ad- 
vancing Versaillese, and as the Assembly's troops 
passed from one portion of the city to another, the 
prisoners captured were frequently shot to death 

* Fetridge. 



the; bloody week. 135 

in groups, in lines, or against the walls. Some 
were convoyed to Satory, and the enfeebled, sick 
or disabled were killed if they lagged or attempted 
to rest on the way. Prudhomme evacuated the 
War Office and neglected to destroy official docu- 
ments which were used and were the means of 
sending to penal servitude and death many of the 
survivors of the Commune. 

The outside posts of the Federates at Laval- 
lois, the Ternes and other environs in this vicinage, 
were now in the midst of a galling fire of artillery 
and of musketry from the outside, and from 
Versaillese sharpshooters on the ramparts. A 
retreat was ordered; the Federates entered the 
city, principally by the Gates Bineau, Asnieres and 
Clichy; they immediately engaged the Versaillese 
inside the walls; but, defeated and forced along, 
the Guards took their places with their comrades 
at the barricades, now under command of the 
Committee of Public Safety. The first system of 
interior defences encountered by the Versaillese, 
was of great extent and importance, ^and was per- 
haps the best managed part of the defence; it 
protected the avenues leading to the center of the 
city, and was of immense strength. In fact, so 
great a number of these internal fortifications had 
been erected, that in the latter days of the fight- 
ing, many were almost without defenders. Some 
huge barricades were held for long periods by only 
two or three Federates to man a mitrailleuse. The 
streets were now occupied only by soldiers and 
war material. The danger from bullet and shell 
was great, and a terror inspired all inhabitants, 
particularly the non-combatants. 

As was usual during the entire fight in the 
city, passers-by were pressed into the service to 
•erect and often to protect barricades. The women 



136 THE) PARIS COMMUNK. 

and boys of the working classes were active in the 
building and defence of street obstructions. Ap- 
plications to the Commune's headquarters were 
continually made by women who wished to assist 
in the defence. They showed much more energy 
and pertinacity than the men and demanded the 
immediate death of any man who proved cowardly 
or recalcitrant, sometimes carrying out their own 
sentences of death. 

A proposition made by Felix Pyat to com- 
promise with the enemy, was quickly set aside by 
the members of the Commune in its informal meet- 
ing. They, however, merely re-delegated the full 
power of defence to the Committee of Public 
Safety; no apparent effort was made toward a 
concerted action by the general body. 

M. Koch, a chemist, was arrested for in- 
terferring in the erection of barricades, and, after 
being heard before Ranvier and two members of 
the Commune, was taken out and shot. 

Megy, carrying out orders for a domiciliary 
search, was sneered at for being a workingman by 
the concierge of the house of the Comte de 
Chabral. The Federates seized the concierge and 
taking him to the yard, shot him. 

Ducatel, who had directed the Versaillese to 
the unprotected St. Cloud gate, was captured by 
the Federates during an attack on a barricade in 
Passy. He was serving as a guide to the attack- 
ing party when he was seized. He was suffering 
from a bayonet wound, but was carried off 

tried before Razoua and sentenced 
to death. The execution of the sentence, probably 
owing to the necessity of defensive operations, 
was delayed. 

Passy, always a loyal stronghold, was full of 
joy; showed tri- colored badges and gathered 



THK BI^OODY WEEK. I37 

companies of men for the Versaillese cause. The 
Arc d'Triomphe was deserted on the approach of 
the enemy and was the first point in the city 
where the tri-color floated. The Military School, 
with a huge quantity of provisions, ammunition 
and 200 cannon, fell to the Versaillese without a 
struggle. Ducatel, sentenced to death, was left in 
the school, and was gaining his liberty through a 
window when the Versaillese arrived. Razoua, 
the Federate officer in charge, immediately escaped 
from the city. There is a suspicion of treachery 
attached to Razoua, as it is stated that he had been 
in communication with the Versaillese. A man 
who was accused of spying near the Military 
School previous to the Versaillese occupation, was 
captured late in the day, taken to the Hotel de 
Ville, tried and shot. General Vinoy captured 
the Communal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the 
Corps lyCgislatif. 

Colonel Boulanger, (afterward General, and 
a prominent figure in France,) was an officer of the 
Versaillese force that captured Montparnasse. 
Several barricades were carried by the Versaillese 
after severe fighting in the quarter of Plaisance 
in this engagement, which took place early Mon- 
day morning. 

Proclamations to the assailants were issued, 
in which the Committee of Public Safety expressed 
the belief that the soldiers of Versaillese would 
not direct their arms against the Parisians when 
they come in close contact. 

The Committee of Public Safety also issued 
the following appeal to the city's inhabitants: 
"Parisians! The struggle we have commenced 
cannot be abandoned, for it is a struggle between 
the past and the future, between liberty and 
despotism, equality and monopoly, fraternity and 



138 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

servitude, the unity of nations and the egotism of 
oppressors. 

" To arms ! Yes, to arms! Let Paris bristle 
with barricades and from behind these improvised 
ramparts let her shout to her enemies the cry of 
war. Its cry of fierce defiance and victory, for 
Paris, with its barricades, is invincible! " 

This was signed by Ant. Arnaud, Billioray, 
Eudes, Gambon and Ranvier. 

Dombrowski had been arrested early in the 
morning, but was soon released, and at once re- 
turned to his command. He was slowly falling 
back all day from the positions in the western 
part of the city, and his action in this regard 
again made him the object of the suspicion of the 
Federates. He was, on account of being a 
foreigner, somewhat disliked by the less intelli- 
gent of the Guard. And being by far the ablest 
of the military leaders, he was the constant object 
of attempts at bribery by the Versaillese; these 
attempts did much to increase the unpleasantness 
of his position. It was believed that he expected 
to make a final stand at Montmartre, from which 
a system of barricades had been erected, extending 
to Trocadero and La Muette. It was apparent 
that the Chateau de la Muette, (at the gate of 
that name,) and the Trocadero, had been illy 
defended, and in consideration of their real military 
importance, greatly neglected. These unfavor- 
able reports still further alarmed the Communal 
sympathizers and demands were made on Deles- 
cluze for men and munitions from all points at 
once. 

An excited and desperate band of women 
invaded the military headquarters, demanding of 
Delescluze a mitrailleuse to defend a barricade 
near the Palais Royal. Each wore a mourning 



THK B1.00DY WEEK. 139 

sign, indicating the loss of a brother, a husband, a 
son or a lover. Their request was granted. No 
horses at all were to be had. The women hitched 
themselves to the huge gun, and to the ammuni- 
tion wagons as well, and dragged them to their 
station, where the women displayed the utmost 
vigor and intrepidity in the defence. 

The school teachers in the secular schools 
established by the Commune applied for positions 
and directed their charges — the boys to aid in 
building barricades, the girls in sewing sacks for 
holding sand, which were used in the construction 
of the street defences. 

The guns of Montmartre, diligently worked, 
could have disorganized the advancing battalions 
of the Versaillese, but this was neglected. 

Rumors were rife that Fort Montrouge had 
been evacuated the night before; troops and war 
materials were hurried to the support of that 
fortification. 

Delescluze was now worn down with work 
and loss of sleep He was busy day and night 
signing orders, assigning forces, etc. 

Valliot, a spy, after trial at the Palace of Jus- 
tice, was taken thence and shot by the Federates. 

The transfer of hostages from Mazas to La 
Roquette took place in the evening. The order for 
the transfer which was signed by Ranvier, Budes 
and Gambon, was directed to Ferre and called his 
attention to his duties regarding their transfer to 
a safer place of confinement. Forty of the most 
important prisoners were transferred; a dozen 
or more, however, whom it was intended to take, 
being left because of lack of carriage facilities, 
among whom was Mgr. Darboy. Those tranferred 
were turned over to Francois, the j ailer, and Vireg, 
the Commandant of I^a Roquette. The prisoners 



140 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

complained of the scantiness of the furnishings of 
their cells to which Francois replied " that it was 
not worth troubling about for the short time they 
would be there." 

Cluseret went into hiding late in the day, de- 
serting the command at Montmartre assigned him 
under La Cecilia. He was subsequently aided to 
escape from the city by an ecclesiastic to whom he 
had shown some favors when in power, and in the 
garb of a priest Cluseret reached Brussels. 

A young officer of the Versaillese army, writing 
ofthe appearance of the city as their troops entered 
through a breach in the defences, says: " I shall 
never forget the sight. The fortifications Lad been 
riddled with bullets; the casements were broken 
in. All over the ground were strewn haversacks, 
packets of cartridges, fragments of muskets, 
scraps of uniforms, tin cans that had held preserved 
meats, ammunition, wagons that had been blown 
up, mangled horses, men dying and dead, artillery- 
men cut down at their guns, broken gun-carriages, 
disabled siege guns, splashed red from pools of 
blood but still pointed at our positions, while all 
around were the still smoking walls of ruined 
private houses. A company of infantry was 
guarding about six hundred prisoners, who, with 
folded arms and lowering faces, were standing 
among the ruins. They were of all ages, grades 
and uniforms, — boys of fifteen and old men, 
general officers covered with gold lace, and beggars 
in rags."* 

* Latimer. 



" At Montmartre, 12 unfortunate soldiers, who had been made prisoners 
and conducted there, had their two hands cut off at the wrists, when they 
were set at liberty. "—Fetridge. This ^v riter is decidedly inimical to the Com- 
mune, and the statement appears in no other record of events, and is the 
only specific charge of cruelty to prisoners by the Federates we have found. 
The statement docs not seem to be sufficiently substantiated to warrant belief. 



THK BLOODY WEEK. 141 

The night of Monday-Tuesday was occupied 
by the Versaillese in massing troops and surround- 
ing Montmartre. The plan was well laid and 
carried out. 

Tuesday, May 23 — The attack on Mont- 
martre commenced before daylight, divisions of 
the attacking force advancing on three sides. The 
Germans surrendered the neutral ground and the 
Gate St. Ouen to the Versaillese, who sent in a 
large body of men by, this entrance. In the de- 
fence of Montmartre, the Federates aided by the 
populace, fought with the knowledge that capture 
meant death as well as disgrace. Men, women 
and children were shot in the battle or murdered 
after capture. 

** Forty-two men, women and children were 
taken to Rue des Rosiers, and butchered as holo- 
caust to the manes of lyccomte and Clement- 
Thomas. The soldiers tried to force them all to 
kneel; but one woman, with a child in her arms, 
refused to kneel, shouting to her companions, 
*' Show these wretches that you know how to die 
standing up."* 

In the final surrender, some hundreds were 
spared and sent to the Versailles prison pen. 

The defence of Montmartre was wholly inade- 
quate to its armament and position. The defences 
in the rear had been neglected, and this 
assisted greatly in the speed with which the 
stronghold was taken. The Federates were in- 
formed that they were betrayed; that the Gate 
St. Ouen and others had been thrown open to 

*Bax. .... 

*Cassell conventionally remarks: ''There was a species of poetical justice in 
this which is very striking; the prisoners were marched to Chateau Rouge, 
or to No. 6 Rue des Rosiers, into the same garden in which, two months 
before, Generals Lecomte and Clement Thomas were shot," 



142 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

the Versaillese. So great was the feeling of inse- 
curity that some barricades near by were left with- 
out defenders by the retreating Guards. 

Vermorel, on horseback, carried the report of 
Montmartre's fall to the Hotel de Ville, where 
consternation was the result. Delescluze, generally 
calm, appeared astounded and dismayed. On hear- 
ing the news he is said to have leaped wildly to 
Jiis feet and exclaimed *' Fire, Fire, Fire." These 
words have been construed by the enemies of the 
Commune to mean that he meant to put in opera- 
tion a plan of systematic destruction of the city by 
conflagration. Other historians declare the words 
were intended for the troops and that he simply 
wished to counsel redoubled activity. Placards 
were issued by him imploring the Versaillese 
troops to desert to the Communes' standard. There 
were several other placards issued, signed by 
various authorities, decreeing the destruction of 
any house from which the Federates had been 
shot at, ordering window blinds to be kept open, 
etc., etc. 

At the fall of Montmartre, the Versaillese 
gained nearly 200 cannon and mitrailleuses. The 
guns of Montmartre were immediately turned on 
the Communal strongholds. 

There still remained several positions of great 
strength — Belleville, Pere-Lachaise, the Buttes 
Chaumont, and Menilmontant — who replied to the 
fire from Montmartre and the other Versaillese 
cannon. 

The Federates who escaped from Montmartre 
were few, but those immediately hastened to 
other strongholds to again stay the progress of 
their adversaries. Barricade after barricade fell. 
The firing, coming nearer and nearer, alarmed 
Brunei who had headquarters in the Ministry of 



THE BI.OODY WHKK. 1 43 

Marine, where was also a hospital for wounded 
Federates. Firing on this point was presently 
discovered to be coming from both the North and 
the South. Brunei feared his escape was about 
to be cut off, and soon some large buildings were 
fired, probably by Brunei's orders. His situation 
becoming serious, shortly after noon, in reply to a 
request for instruction, he was commanded to 
blow up the Ministry when defence was no longer 
possible. Brunei was strongly supported by 
artillery stationed in the Rue de la Concorde, and 
continued a vigorous defence. The distribution 
of the Federates over a huge territory, in many 
barricades and strong points, enabled the Versail- 
lese to centralize on these points and thus destroy 
the defence in detail. 

At the foot of the Boulevard Malesherbes, in 
the rear of the Church of the Madeleine, was the 
strong point — the key to the situation, and terrific 
fighting, lasting for many hours, told of the im- 
portance with which it was held. The belfrey 
was manned by Federate sharpshooters; one of 
these seeing a Versaillese soldier about to shoot, 
pointed his gun at him, and immediately they dis- 
covered that they were father and son, the father 
defending the Commune from the belfrey. The 
church was taken by assault. A great number 
of men on both sides were killed during the fight- 
ing, and the Federates captured were shot on the 
spot. 

The barricades at the Croix Rouge — the inter- 
section: of six roads was carried after a desperate 
struggle. Galbain and i8 other Federates were 
captured and immediately shot to death. 

Dombrowski was arrested very early on Tues- 
day morning, and was confined while Montmartre 
was being taken. This calamity brought the Com- 



144 ^HB PARIS COMMUNE. 

munal authorities to a realization of their perilous 
condition. The necessity of utilizing all available 
military ability doubtless overruled the vague 
suspicions upon which the Pole was held. He 
was released about noon, and, accompanied by 
his aides, galloped to the barricades, where his 
bravery and enthusiasm raised the drooping spirits 
of the defenders for a few moments, when he fell, 
mortally wounded by a bullet in the abdomen. He 
asked Dr. Cusco, the surgeon, how long he would 
live; he was told but a few hours at most. He 
dictated an order to the Federates to hold the 
barricades, and then begged the surgeon to kill 
him that he might be released from his dreadful 
agony. He lingered until evening, bearing with 
remarkable fortitude the awful suffering. The 
body was claimed by Brioncel, who declared it 
should not be taken by the Versaillese. Carried 
to the Hotel de Ville, the remains lay the night of 
22d-23d. On Wednesday morning the coffin was 
taken to Pere-I/achaise cemetery, the Federates at 
the barricades reversing their arms as the cortege 
passed.* 

Dombro-wski was a refugee from Siberia, who made his way across 
Russia to France in 1865, and was much hated and feared by the 
Russian Government. He had fought in the Polish Insurrection of 

* In justice to Dombrowski it may be said that, although he appears to 
have been aware of the plot against the Commune [ p. 96 ] (whose inability 
to conduct the war must be conceded,) there is nothing to show that either 
he or the others in the scheme had personal ends in view. The intention 
was to put the management of the war into the hands of a committee of 
young and resolute members of the Commune, thus nullifying the latter 
body in all affairs regarding the war. 

It is evident that his stubborn retreat of Monday was a strategical 
movement of great importance, as it presented a useless sacrifice of life and 
kept in the hands of the Communists much property of use to them which 
would have fallen into the hands of the enemy had they won a decisive vic- 
tory, their power to accomplish which Dombrowski clearly saw. Owing to 
the great dissatisfaction attending Dombrowski's retreat of Monday, it is 
intimated that he died from a shot inflicted by one of his own men. This 
insinuation is not borne out by any ascertainable fact in connection 
with the affair. 

Dombrowski had been twice wounded in previous engagements in this 
struggle before he received his death wound. 



THK BLOODY WEEK. 145 

1863. His merit as a soldier and a man Is praised by friend and foe 
alike. Judging from his splendid efforts in the defense of the Com- 
mune, he was a man of rare military ability and personal valor. 

On the South the Versaillese were having a 
much more difficult advance. Fierce fighting took 
place at many points, the Federates showing great 
courage, though greatly overmatched in numbers. 
Petit Montrouge was the only point gained in the 
South by the Versaillese. Eudes is credited with 
superintending the placing of inflammable material 
about the Palace of the L<egion of Honor, the 
Palace of the Council of State, barracks, and other 
government buildings, which were fired. Huge 
numbers of historical and official documents were 
destroyed in these buildings. A large number of 
private houses, probably fired by sparks from the 
government buildings, were burned, the whole 
forming a conflagration the magnitude of which 
was astounding, and its awful magnificance will 
never be effaced from the memory of those who 
witnessed the scene of destruction. 

Bergeret, with headquarters at the Tuileries, 
convinced of the utter hopelessness of longer 
retaining possession, was resolved never to allow 
these '* new usurpers and enemies of the Com- 
mune" to occupy this home of kings and emperors. 
In the evening, flames proclaimed the downfall 
of this majestic monument to the tyranical rule of 
hereditary monarchs and the military usurpers of 
France. The populace and the Versaillese were 
now convinced that the city was to be levelled, 
and it filled the upper and middle classes with an 
almost inconceivable fury against the Communists.* 

'While a convoy of prisoners, several hundred in number, were being- 
marched off for Versailles, with cavalry in the front and rear and regular 
toopsoneach side, a well-dressed woman left her escort on the sidewalk 
and inflicted many blows on some of the female prisoners. — Washburne. 



146 THK PARIS COMMUNB. 

Two men alleged to be spies were tried at Petit 
La Roquette and taken to Rue de la Vacquerie, 
and shot. A woman, Madeline EpiHy, demanded 
and fired the first shot. 

A dozen or more little girls from 8 to 15 years 
of age, accused of setting fire to buildings, were 
shot by the Versaillese in the center of the city. 
Some of their bodies were seen by the Secretary 
of the United States Legation and the affair re- 
ported to Mr. Washburne.* 

Every sentiment of honor and humanity of 
the non-combatants in and out of the city, pro- 
tested against the massacres of squads of prisoners, 
especially those which included women and 
children. So the tactics changed; the females 
were separated from the male prisoners, the*'petro- 
leuses" were discovered, and the victims found 
death under a special section of the general edict 
of murder. t 

There is but little evidence that " petro- 
leuses " (petroleum-throwers ) existed, except that 
scores of women and girls, many of the latter but 
children, were shot without trial for the offence. 
At times the women prisoners were abused in the 
most shameful manner by the Versaillese; the 
desperate courage of the women enraged the in- 
vaders more than the strength of their defence. 

On Monday Gustave Chaudey, at the request 
of his wife, was transferred from Mazas to St. 
Pelagic prison. Chaudey's wife, a lady of ex- 
quisite beauty and great culture, accompanied by 

*"0n that afternoon one of the employes of my legation counted the dead 
bodies of eight children in the Avenue d'Antin, the eldest not over 14 years 
of age, who * * * had been shot on the spot."— TTas/ffertrne. 

t To carry a milk-can [or to act as if afraid of the soldiery, a not unnatural 
action by w<>men in view of the previous murders] was evidence enough to 
bring on their immediate death. In the trials which followed the Commune, 
of the several hundred women arrested but four were "convicted" of petro- 
leum-throwing, and this before a "court" formed for sentence rather than 
for trial. 



THE BI^OODY WEEK. 1 47 

her son, three or four years of age, visited Rigault 
and implored him to not impose the death sentence 
on her husband. Persuasion, entreaties, supplica- 
tion, tears — all were lost on the implacable Rigault. 
*' No, madam, I can not remit." Then turning to 
the child, Rigault said: Yes, little man, we are 
going to shoot your papa to-morrow." 

At II o'clock on the night of the 23d, Augus- 
tine Ranvier, Governor of the St. Pelagic prison, 
was directed to bring out for execution Gustave 
Chaudey and three gen d'armes. Rigault superin- 
tended the proceedings, and gave all orders, in- 
cluding the order for the execution itself. Chau- 
dey was shot to death by eight Federates; after 
this, the gen d' armes met the same fate. 

Gustave Chaudey was a talented advocate; was the executor 
of P. J. Proudhon, (the well-known writer on political economy.) 
Chaudey had been generally credited with strong democratic senti- 
ments. 

The night of the 23d-24th was one of horror 
and destruction. The bombardment by the Ver- 
saillese batteries was steady and effective, the 
Federate cannon belching their answers at inter- 
vals; the sound of musketry and of mitrailleuses 
was constant. Fires sprang up in all directions, 
ignited from shells, and rapidly spread by sparks 
from the buildings evacuated by the Communists. 

An explosion occurred at about 12 o'clock in 
the night which shook the entire city. The fire 
had reached the large stores of explosives in the 
Tuileries, and the central part of the beautiful 
structure was completely demolished. 

* Eudes is credited with having sent the following' order to one of his 
officers: " Fire on the Bourse, the Bank, the Post Office, the Place des 
Victoires, the Place Vendome, the Garden of the Tuileries, the Babylone 
Barracks; leave the Hotel de Ville to Commandant Pindj', the Delegate of 
War, and the Committee of Public Safety. The Commune will assemble at 
the Mairie of the 11th arrondissement; there we will organize the defence of 
the popular quarters of the city. We will send you cannon and ammunition 
from the Pare Basfroi. We will hold out to the last, happen what map'." 



148 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

Wednesday, May 24 — Brunei, shortly aftei 
midnight, received orders to immediately destroy 
the Ministry of Marine, after having removed the 
wounded from the hospitals. The Ministry was 
evacuated and a false alarm that the building was 
surrounded, prevented its being fired by the rear 
guard. It was soon after really surrounded, and all 
Federates found in the building were immediately 
killed, most of them being bayonetted to death. 

It was decided by the Communists to desert 
the Hotel de Ville, and late in the day fire appeared 
various places in the building. 

The Federates, under Pindy, were ordered 
to the Place Bastille. The Committee Central 
placarded the town, still insisting that a basis of a 
settlement with the Versaillese should be sought. 

The last issue of the Journal Offidel was on 
this day.^ 

An order was issued to Milliere, Dereure, 
Billioray and Vesinier, assigning them to the work 
of inspecting and destroying houses suspected of 
harboring Versaillese troops. The last proclama- 
tion issued by the Committee Central was on this 
date, and called upon the National Guards who 
were with the Versaillese to join the Federates. 

The Ministry of Finance was in flames and 
added to the scene of fiery splendor. The Palace 
Royal, grand and noted, fell, and later in the day 
the Imperial I^ibrary, containing nearly 100,000 
volumns, many valuable and rare. The Louvre 
was saved only by the utmost exertions of the 
invaders. The Versaillese fought the fires vigor- 
ously, in many instances in the face of fierce 
fusilades from the Federates. Early in the day 
many residences, followed by the lyyric Theatre, 

*No paper appeared at all on the 24th, except a little sheet called tiit 
Com^tittttion, which came out in the evening.—Wcishburne. 



the: bi^oody wkek. 149 

the Tapis Rouge and the Theatre St. Martin 
burned, and a huge volume of smoke, impenetra- 
ble by the sun, hung over the city. 

The Cathedral of Notre Dame was on fire, but 
sufiered comparatively slight injury, owing to 
efforts of the medical staff of the Hotel Dieu 
assisted by firemen. 

The *' League of the Rights of Paris," a bour- 
geoise Republican organization, protested to the 
Committee Central against the destruction of 
property. 

The order to kill all Federates taken as 
prisoners was promulgated from Versailles. This 
was merely making public what was tacitly under- 
stood from the first, and the order designating 
''Federates" was by the interpretation of the 
Versaillese officers, made to cover, (through the 
accusations of incendiarism, petroleum throwing, 
etc.,) Federates and civilians, women and children. 
On the morning of the 24th, 13 "petroleuses" were 
shot on the Place Vendome, now occupied by the 
Versaillese troops. The murder of prisoners 
had become general; Federates, armed or unarmed, 
were killed on sight, and persons supposed to be 
upholders of the Communal cause were captured 
and shot down at the caprice of the captors, or 
marched to prison. To resist was rewarded by 
instant death; to protest against the inhumanity of 
the captors brought the saber stroke of an officer; 
to lag behind in the march, was to receive a 
bayonet thrust from a lingard. 

The Versaillese captured among others with 
arms in their hands, a boy 15 years of age; 
while being pushed against the wall to be shot, he 
asked that he might visit the concierge who lived 
opposite, to leave a watch to be delivered as 
directed; the request was granted, and in a few 



150 THE PARIS COMMUMK. 

moments the lad returned to his place against the 
wall, spread out his arms and said, " I am ready." 
With a kindness contrary to anything usually 
reported of the Versaillese soldiery, the captain 
gave the youngster a violent kick, saying : ' ' Get 
away from here, you young rascal." 

There was now a conviction on the part of 
most of the Federates that either a successful 
defence or any escape was impossible. Thiers 
closed all orders to the Assembly's commanders ;vith 
these words: '* Let none escape." * There was 
but one of two things for the beleagured workers 
— death or transportation. And the conduct of 
the defenders from this time showed a decided 
preference for the loss of, life as against the loss 
of freedom; during this life-destroying grind 
between the unyielding German line in the rear 
and the constantly advancing enemy on the front, 
their courage was worthy of a victory, and their 
valor is the prominent feature in a lost cause. 

A barricade at the Place Blanche was de- 
fended by a force of 120 women, whose efforts 
were almost beyond belief. When defeated, many 
of them threw themselves upon their antagonists, 

*The Bonapartist, Royalist and Clerical vengeance surpassed in infamous 
ferocity anything that history records. For a month the soldiers of France 
enraged themselves against all who were guilty, or even suspected of having 
wished to defend surrendered France and a betrayed Republic. Blood flowed 
in the prisons, in the barracks, where without .iefenco, men exhausted by 
misery and famine were massacred. Old men, women, children, the wounded 
and invalids all furnished material for the destruction of life. The squares 
were converted into vharnel houses, the casemates and the ditches of the fort- 
ifications received more lead and dying than quicklime could consume. 
Assassination became such a habit with the soldiers that the Imperial officers 
become afraid of the brutes they commanded. 

The armies which had surrendered like a flock of sheep were now let 
loose, by the Germans upon the city they had not, in point of fact conquered 
by war. 'Ihe bourgeoisie, always controlled by their cowardly terrors, 
thought only of saving their own persons and goods, After two months of 
terror, the mournful history of which will never be known, order reigned 
<iver the bodies of 50,000 Frenchmen slaughtered in the preserve and to the 
great joy of the enemy. The sword of the officers of the Empire became a 
law to M. Thiers, and now judged the miserable people who had not been 
moved down by the mitrailleuses. — Lockwood. 



THE.BI^OODY WEEK. 151 

were run through by bayonets, and died crying 
"Vive la Commune." 

The Guards defending the Bank of France 
were in constant alarm, getting but little sleep 
during these days. They slept in the bank, and 
were seldom able to go out for their meals. The 
shutters were crenelated and each man was 
assigned his place. 

The Pantheon and its approaches were des- 
perately defended; the attacking force was the 
concentrated Versaillese army on the South. 
The courage of the guardians of this position was 
grand; the number and persistence of the As- 
sembly's troops gained the day, but with great loss. 
Such slaughter had not yet been seen on the 
streets as was here shown. The fall of the 
Pantheon, really considered impregnable, and 
defended by young and enthusiastic revolutionists, 
was a crushing blow to the Communal hopes, 
Lisbonne was at the head of the defence and 
exhibited skill and bravery.* 

The Palace of Justice, f the Prefecture of 
Police and other buildings occupied by Rigault 
and Ferre were rapidly being approached by the 
Versaillese. The Prefecture was deserted. A fire 
broke out, probably ignited by order of the retiring 
officials. There was a large number of prisoners 
who remained in the prison rather than be pressed 
into the Commune's service at the barricades. 

• *A terrific explosion of powder occurred about noon while the fighting- 
was fiercest about the Pantheon. The magazine, in a garden back of the 
Rue d'Ouest, was exploded, and great numbers of shops had their fronts 
blown out; many houses were injured in the neighborhood of the 
Observatorj', and the Palace of the Luxemberg, in common with 
many lesser buildings, had scarce a whole pane of glass left in it. - The 
clouds of dust obscured the sun and the bewildered and terror-stricken in- 
habitants, seeking to escape the dangers of falling: fragments and buildings, 
often placed themselves in the range of the bullets of the combatants. 

t The site of the Palace of Justice [on an island in the Seine] had been 
the spot on which the Caesars resided when Paris was not Paris, but Lutece. 



152 THK PAEIS COMMUN]^. 

" The Seine furnished abundant water, and all uten- 
sils were used by non-combatants to extinguish the 
flames, and these efforts were partially successful. 
Over 20,000,000 cartridges and several tons of 
powder were removed by extraordinary efforts of 
persons of the neighborhood. These explosives 
were thrown in the Seine."* 

The prisoners in the Prefecture, including 
the chemist Borme, were finally liberated. 

Raoul Rigault, Procurator of the Commune, 
was shot at while entering a house on the Rue 
Gay-Iyussac about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The 
proprietor of the house resembled Rigault and 
narrowly escaped death, being mistaken for him 
by the soldiers when they entered the house. 
Rigault was captured and led out, and an officer 
questioned him. He replied, " Yes, I am Rigault; 
Vive la Commune ! " The officer shot him with 
a pistol, and he was riddled with the bullets of 
the Versaillese soldiery. The body was pounded 
and disfigured; one eye protruded; the head was 
a pulpy mass.f 

Raoul Rigault was a native of Paris, 26 years of age at the time 
of his death. He was a law student and had received a good educa- 
tion.J He had been- a contributor to many journals. His revolu- 
tionary tendencies were very vexatious to his father and brothers, 
wh) were, in no way, sympathizers in his beliefs. His personal ap- 
pearance was attractive. * * dark complexioned and short- 
sighted. * * of a bold, skeptical and uncompromising character, 
not dismayed by the titles of rank held by men in church or State. 
Rigault had been elected Chief of Battalion during tha Prussian 
siege. At the election of the 26th of March, he was returned from tha 
8th arrondissement, and was at once confirmed as the head of 
the Police Department. 

* Latimer. 

+Advised that it was Rigault— this was enough for the soldiers and 
down, like a dog, on the street. There his dead body lay for hours. 
Men and women went up and kicked it and spit in the face of the assassin. 
Such was tlie fitting end of the great leader of the Commune of Paris.— 
Washburne. 

{Rigault was a medical student.—*/^. Simon. 



THE BLOODY WEKK. 153 

" His manner was abrupt and had an official style." His hostility 
to the priesthood was open and avowed; and he is perhaps most 
to be charged with the proceedings against the ecclesiastics.* His 
actions in this regard have brought upon him the hatred and 
calumny of the bourgeoise press and priesthood. He is credited 
with extraordinary tact in the discovery of spies and the suppression 
of Versaillese schemes against the Commune. His order for the 
arrest of Mgr. Darboy is an example of his style: " Arrest at once 
Darboy [Georges] who calls himself Archbishop of Paris." 

" Rigid in his attitude, hard and brief in his words, listening to 
only the passion which dominated him, * * he spread over Paris 
an immense web, entangling in its threads all persons hostile to the 
Communal movement." f 

Rlgault's conduct, while in the Communal service, was exactly 
that which should have characterized an officer who desired to ad- 
vance the interests of the government with which he was associated 
and would have been applauded by the bourgeois apologists had he 
been a partner of the Versaillese. 

Washburne declares that "he linked not a single virtue to a 
thousand crimes." It is a strange attitude of mind in which is con' 
demned, upon moral grounds, arbitrary conduct in the part of an 
official, under circumstances when it becomes the first duty of the 
citizen to destroy life. The historians who so fiercely denounce him 
may be reminded of Rigault's own reply to his critics in the Com- 
mune: *'War is immoral; and yet we fight." 

Serizier, commanding loist battalion National 
Guard, desired a defence to be maintained 
behind a wall in the yard of a chemist named 
Dubois; the latter refused to allow this, and a 
party of Federates was sent to capture him. 
Sulphuric acid was thrown at them by the chem- 
ist, who had taken his position at the head of the 
stairs in his home. He was vShot and killed by 
Roullic, a Federate 19 years of age. 

The Commune's members and the Committee 
Central had now adj ourned to the Mairie of the 
nth arrondissement, where in company with 

* " He was literally a clericophobist and a passionate Blanquist * * 
Nobody contributed more than Rigault to the loss of the Commune. As a 
man I esteem Rlgault highly; as a public man he was deplorable." This 
arrest [Darboy's] started the Commune on the road to that quagmire into 
which Thiers sought to plunge it. * * * The massacre of the hostages— 
that is to say, an act of stupid violence."— Cltiseret, j 

tFetridge. 



154 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

Delescluze and other officials, plans to stay 
the- progress of the Versaillese were discussed; 
Betwjeen 30 and 40 of the Communal leaders gave 
orders and received reports. Comte de Beaufort, 
formally an orderly on Cluseret's staff, was seized, 
maltreated and finally shot by a body of P'ederates. 
Uncertain charges were made against Beaufort, 
scantily supported, but the P'ederates were not 
now in a mood to need much proof of infidelity. 
Suspicions of treacher}^ were prevalent among the 
Federates.* Several suspected spies were executed. 

The execution of the decree to destroy the 
Expiatory Chapel had been delayed.f M- lyibmann 
opened negotiations for the silver and ornaments 
and bought them for 5,000 francs. He was trying 
to make a bargain with Fontaine, Communal 
Director of Domain, for the material of the chapel, 
when the Versaillese arrived and took the business 
out of his hands. The chapel was considerably 
damaged by shot and shell, but was repaired by 
order of the Assembly. This church had been 
erected in memory of I^ouis XVI and Marie 
Antoinette. 

Georges Veysset was taken from prison by 
Ferre, marched to the statue of Henry IV on the 
Pont Neuf. He said to Ferre: "When I was 
arrested I had 20,000 fr.. on me; what has be- 
come of it?'' Ferre answered: " Be not uneasy, 
we will settle all accounts at once." Veyiset was 
sh ot and his, body thrown into the Seine. 

' *Mathie'u was shot by the Guards, and had on his person, when captured^ 
was l,500,000fr., which sum the insurgents accused him of naving received 
for opening one of the gates of the citj- to the Yevsaiilese. —Fetridge. 

KoTie— A "decree for the repairs of the Expiatory Chapel erected to Louis 
XXI was introduced and passed the Assembly 24th May, 
" tThe exertions of M. Libmann to save the Expiatory Chapel were 
rewarded by a letter from Henri V. Comte de Chambord, in which the latter 
refers very . touchingly to the " patriotism and faith" and the "Zealand 
■courage" of M. Libmann in. preserving "the chapel oonsecrate-l to tlie 
Martyr King." , 



THE BLOODY WEEK. I55 

At the barricades near the Palais Royal a 
furious battle took place. The Federates and the 
women and children were displaced only by the 
onslaughts of vastly superior numbers. The 
Palais Royal w^as fired at 3 p. m. The insurgents 
were driven from the Church of Saint Eustache, 
and the building was fired, but, by great effort on 
the part of the Assembly's supporters, was saved 
from destruction. At this combat a woman in 
man's apparel was killed; her sex was not dis- 
covered until the bodies of the insurgents were 
thrown into a heap at the corner of the church. 
The attack at the Theatre Francais was made 
from three directions; the Guards were beaten, 
overpowered, clubbed, but refused to surrender 
and were all put to death at once. At the barri- 
cades of the Boulevard Saint Michel, the Federates 
in that important position, w^ere enabled to check 
the advance of the Versaillese for many hours; 
General Patural, the Assembly's commander in 
this attack, w^as struck in the leg by a ball, but 
continued giving his orders with the greatest 
Calmness. The Communal defenders were separ- 
ated by the river and the defeated Federates and 
populace, after the day's conflict, were concentrat- 
ing in points best for defence on both sides of the 
river, but without any plan of action except of 
the most temporary and shifting character in each 
quarter. 

The Ministry of Finance was burned, but the 
" Grand Xivre " of France — a series of nearly 
3,000 volumes, containing the inscriptions of the 
public debt of the country, from the commence- 
ment of the indebtedness down to the time of the 

Note— Thiers and Favre entered Paris surrounded by cordons of cavalry 
on the morning of the 24th. After a short stay they returned ta Versailles, 
and Thiers ma.'e known to the Assembly the condition of the city; declared 
that the "criminals" should be punished implacably; the National Guard to 
b^ disarmed and "order" be restored in Paris by and through the Assembly. 



156 THE PARIS C®MMUN«. 

Commune , had been taken from the building the 
day before. 

It is evident that whatever destruction and 
fire in the city was due to projectiles, was very 
much more chargable to the Versaillese than to 
the Communists, as the former fired ten times to 
every cannon discharged by the latter. 

The IvUxumburg fell after a desperate struggle. 
Its defenders, who were captured, were bayonetted 
or shot to death, and buried on the spot. 

Preparations for the long threatened shooting 
of hostages were now made. 

A Court Martial was instituted in the nth 
arrondissement.* Genton, a Communal Magis- 
trate presided, and, after trial, a list containing 
the following names — 

Gborge Darbot, Archbishop of Paris; 

M. BoNjiiAN, Judge of the Court of Cassation; 

Abbe Deguerry, Cure of the Madeleine, 

Was handed to Theophile Ferr^, head of 
Public Security Department. 

Ferre proceeded to La Roquette and added 
three more names to the list : 

Father Decoudrat, Superior of the College of Jesuits. 
Father Clercq, Professor in the College of Jesuits. 
Abbe Allard, Chaplain to the Ambulances. 

An order for the delivery of these prisoners 
was handed Ranvier. 

Upon the receipt of the order for the prisoners, 
Henrion, the prison keeper, made an excuse that 
he would go for the keys. These he had with 
him, and as he hurriedly walked away, he threw 
them into a heap of filth, and by the aid of a 
five-franc gold piece, gained the outside of the city, 
and sought refuge at Vincennes.f Other keys 

tlVfarcJi. tJj^tiojei'. 



tRM filvQODV WSEit. 157 

were found after some time, and the prisoners 
were called into the corridor. Judge Bonjean, 
when notified, speaking from his cell, replied: 
" In a moment, I am putting on my coat." '* You 
will need no coat where you are going," replied a 
Federate. 

It was about 8p.m. when the hostages were 
taken out of their cells.* While going down a small 
flight of stairs, the Archbishop was in advance, 
and raising his hands, blessed his condemned com- 
panions. Bonj ean, an aged man, fainted and had to 
be assisted. The hostages were conducted to the 
prison yard. Mgr. Darboy, while expostulating 
with the Federates, and begging them to forego 
the shooting, w^as accused by one of the party of 
having acted against the people.f The Archbishop 
proclaimed himself a *' friend of liberty "to which 
a Federate replied, " yes, but your liberty is not 
ours.'' There was a fierce struggle among the 
Federates as to who should do the shooting on 
this occasion, so many there were who wished to 
avenge the loss of a brother, a father or a friend 
murdered by the Versaillese. Darkness rendered 
the use of lanterns necessary, and by their flicker- 
ing light the spectators viewed the trembling 
prisoners ranged against the wall which sur- 
rounded the prison grounds. 

The firing party of 40, which included Megy, 
Verig and Lolive, on order from Ranvier, fired a 
volley at the hostages. Five were killed. Mgr. 
Darboy, standing up, was shot with a musket by 
a Federate, after which Verig shot him with a 

* Instead of receiving^ the respect du« his rauk, he [Darboy) was treated 
aa a vulgar criminal.— iTasA&wrne. 

f Mgr. Darboy was suspect«d of having provisions secreted in his palace 
and in the Cathedral of Notr« Dakm during the seige bj the G«rmans which 
made the Parisian public very apathetic regarding his release. 

X Two or three Federates knelt to receive the Archbishop's blessing; they 
were kicked, jeered at and othtrwiss roughly treated by their companions. 



158 THK PARIS COMMtTNE. 

pistol. The Archbishop, j ust as the order to fire 
was being given, raised his right hand to give his 
episcopal blessing. " That's your benediction, is 
it ? Now take mine " said Lolive, and he fired a 
pistol bullet into the Archbishop's body.* 

The bodies and the cells of the executed 
hostages were relieved of all valuables. The 
corpses were taken to Pere-I/achaise cemetery, 
where they were thrown into an open trench, from 
whence they were removed by the Versaillese 
when they captured the cemetery. 

MonseigneurDarboy was 58 years ol age. He was born in a vil- 
lage in Upper Marne, at Fayl-Billot, the I6th of January, 1813. 

George Darboy was educated at the Seminary of Langres, where 
tie passed most brilliant examinations.* 

In 1854, during a voyage which he made to Rome with the Arch 
bishop, the Pope conferred on him the title of Apostolic Prothono- 
tary. Finally, after being named Titular Vicar-General of Paris, he 
became, in 1859, Bishop of Nancy. 

A decree of the lOth of January, 1863, designed him for the archi- 
episcopal seat of Paris, where he was precognized the 16th of March, 
and installed the 21st of April of the same year. 

On January 8th, 1864, he became Grand Almoner of the Emperor 
and a decree of the following October called him to the Senate. He 
was a member of the Council of Public Instruction, and grand-offlcer 
of the Legion of Honor in 1868. 

The moderate and conciliatory political role which Mohseigneur 
Darboy endeavored to fill after his elevation to the archi-episcopacy 
did not always succeed. The persistent refusal of the Pope to accord 
a cordinal's hat to the Archbishup of Paris was for a long time con- 
sidered as a sign of a misunderstanding between them. Monseig- 
neur Darboy, however, protested against the existence of anything of 
the kind in a pastoral letter, Written on the fiftieth anniversary of 
the priesthood of Pius IX.* 

" He was one of the most charming and agreeable of men and was 
beloved alike by rich and poor. He had spent his whole lifeinactg 
of charity and benevolence, "t 

*The Archbishop, in a conversation with M. Rousse, Staffman of the 
Order of Advocates, who visited him in hia cell at Mazas, said "I have in-- 
curred, on account of my ideas on certain subjects, the disfavor of the Court 
of Rome. When I was" called to the Archbishopric of Paris, I explained to, 
the Emperor my views regarding the separation of Church and State. I- 
begged him to occupy himself as little as possible with the clergy." ^ 

tWashburne. 



THK BI^OODY WBKK. 1 59 

The Abbe Deguerry was born in Lyons in 1797, and was the son of 
a wood merchant. At his death he was seventy-four years of age. 
After having commenced his studies at the seminary of his 
native city, he went to finish them at the College of ViUefranche. 
During 1820-24 he was professor of philosophy, theology, and 
eloquence, and finally became preacher. In 1824 he preached at 
Lyons ; in 1825 and 1826 at Paris. The following year he was named 
almoner of the 6th regiment of the Royal Guard by Charles X. He 
followed his regiment to Orleans, to Rouen, and Paris, until 1830. 
In 1828, he pronounced at Orleans a discourse in eulogy of Joan of Arc 
which tweuty-cight years later [1856] he was called upon to repeat. 
In 1840, M Deguerry became canon of Notre-Dame, and in 1844, arch- 
priest. The following year he was made cure of Saint Eustache, and 
in 1849 cure of the Madeleine. In 1868 he was charged with religious 
Instruction of the Prince Imperial. Decorated in May, 1846, he was 
made office)- of the Legion of Honor in 1853, and commander 8th of 
May, 1868. M. Deguerry was the author of many religious works. 

Friends of the imprisoned priests made some 
efforts to avert the fate which the continued 
barbarities of the Versaillese held over the heads 
of the ecclesiastics.* There were deputations and 
much correspondence. United States Minister, 
Washburne, was unremitting in his efforts to save 
the Archbishop.f All offers of exchange for Blan- 
qui had been definitely refused.! 

*The Archbishop of Paris; writing from prison, wrote a letter to M. 
Thiers making inquiries regarding the cruelties said to have been inflicted 
upon prisoners taken by the Versaillese. Thiers, throiigh the Paris journals, 
replied that all prisoners taken were treated with the aitmost. consideration. 
The truth of this statement may be estimated bj' the newspaper reports and 
other evidence. --. ■ 

. t" Relying on the good relations existing between the government of the 
United States and their country," the Pope's nuncio, Flavins Chigi, asked 
Mr. Washburne to, if possible, obtain the deliverance of the Archbishop 
" that the cause of humanity and civilization might cease to suffer in his 
person." 

t " I examined the question from a political point of view. It is to the 
interest of the Versaillese that the Archbishop . should be assassinated and 
Blanqui detained. * * By the first the Commune is put out of the pale of 
civilization and by the second, it is deprived of its most experienced political 
leader. * * Asking them to renounce two advantages without any. com- 
pensation — it was insanity. * * If the Commune does not put the Arch- 
bishop to death, Thiers will * * in order to charge the murder on the 
Cominune, giving the Versaillese a double claim on Blanqui; therefore 
it is our interest to save the Archbishop. If Blanqui were in Paris Tie migKt 
save the Cominune. * * He would have taken the-politi(.aI c6adui-t (>f 
affairs into his own hands and left me free to devote n},yself wholly in, the 
defence of Paris. Acciistomed to discipline, he would have diScJpKned^his 
people and allowed me to! discipline mine."— Ciwseret, 



l6o fHE PARIS COMMUNE. 

The church officials, on the whole, seemed not 
greatly displeased at the death of the Archbishop, 
as there was a difference of opinion upon certain 
affairs regarding Church and State in upper 
ecclesiastical circles, and Darboy had made himself 
obnoxious to his colleagues. In fact, as E. Belfort 
Bax characteristically expresses it : "This (the 
offerof exchange for Blanqui) was refused, partly, 
perhaps, at the instigation of the Ultramontane 
Catholics, who were strong in the Assembly, and 
to whom Darboy, who was a Galilean i. e. who 
favored an independent attitude of the French 
clergy towards the Papal pretensions, was by no 
means a persona grata. By his death they would 
kill two birds with one stone; get a Christian 
martyr on the cheap, and probably obtain for one 
of their own men the wealthy diocese of Paris." 

After the coup of 185 1, when the people stub- 
bornly defended the barricades. Napoleon III had 
broadened and so arranged the streets, avenues 
and boulevards that they could be swept by 
machine guns. He did not take into consideration 
the possibility that mitrailleuses might be in the 
hands of the people, as they now were, and placed 
in street fortifications of such strength and magni- 
tude as had never before been seen. 

*• The Parisian,'* wrote Rossel, ** recovers in 
the war of barricades the vigor in which he is de- 
ficient for defending ramparts, or in open warfare. 
The possibility of taking flight, and escaping the 
consequences of defeat by going home, only to 
resume his arms at a convenient moment, gives 
him the same feeling of safety which regular 
troops derive from the 'shoulder to shoulder,' and 
the companionship under their flag. It is not a 
paradox to say that the uniform deprives the 
rioter of a portion of his courage. The men in 



THE BI^OODY WEEK. i$i 

blouses have more energy, more dash, and more 
military valor than the National Guards, and 
especially than the officers." 

In taking the barricades the Versaillese 
soldiery slipped from corner to corner, from 
doorway to doorway, improvising barricades by 
pushing a barrel out to crouch behind, then 
another, keeping up an incessant and deadly 
fusillade of musketry. While this was the order of 
advance on the ground, the Assembly's troops 
invaded buildings looking down on the defenders 
and from windows and roofs picked them off with 
almost perfect safety to themselves. The barri- 
cades were in the end assaulted, but this method 
was not in much vogue until great weakness was 
shown in defence. The Federates seem to have 
fired but little from the houses, contenting them- 
selves entirely with the protection of barricades 
in the last days. Neither artillery or cavalry 
of the Versaillese appear to have been generally 
effective in the street fighting, but the well- 
directed valor of the Assembly's troops, their great 
numerical preponderance and thorough discipline, 
together with the sagacity of their chiefs, made 
the advance alike steady and successful. 

The artillery service of the Versaillese was at 
all times more effective than that of the Federates. 
There was an abundance of ammunition, and 
an ample supply of men, and these of a much 
superior efficiency in this branch to the gunners 
of the Federates. The firing from Valerien was 
particularly conspicuous as being not only much 
more accurate than that of the Federates, but far 
superior to any of the artillery work of the Prus- 
sians while besieging the city. The cannonading 
duel inside the city discovered the same superiority 



l62 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

that Had been seen in the Assembly's artillerists in 
the exterior fortifications; 

The Bank, the Bourse, the Luxemburg, the 
Conservatory of Music, the Exchange, Porte St. 
Denis, Monotholon Square, St. Vincent de Paul. 
Northern and Strasburg railway station, the 
Church of Notre Dame des Victoires and the Post- 
ofiice and other important buildings were taken by 
the Assembly's troops. The Hotel de Ville, a mass of 
flames, splendid even in its destruction, was 
entered by the Versaillese at 9 o'clock in the even- 
ing. A large number of Federates captured at the 
barracks near the Hotel de Ville, were immediately 
killed by bayonet thrusts and sabre slashes. 

Wednesday was a day of overwhelming defeat 
for the Commune. Their strongholds were falling 
and there was not an offset in any way favorable 
to the Federates. The unburied bodies of human 
beings, now advancing in decomposition, and the 
pools of blood in the gutters added a deathly stench 
to the already heavily laden air. The night of the 
24th-25th was the time of the display of the most 
dreadful work of the combat. The cannonading 
by the Versaillese could no longer be distinguished 
by shots, but the artillery fire poured upon the 
Communist strongholds was one continuous roar. 
"The musketry fire was so constant as to resemble 
the whistling rush of a mighty wind, occasionally 
varied by the rattle of the mitrailleuses." 

The air was hot with the fires almost count- 
less in number; the smoke Jind heat made res- 
piration difl&cult. 

The Ministry of Finance, the Palace of the 
X^egion of Honor, the Palace Royal, the Tuileries, 
and the Hotel de Ville, together with others of 
scarcely less cost, elegance and celebrity, were 



THK BI^OODY WEEK. 1 63 

prominent features in the glaring panorama on 
this dreadful night. 

From the heights outside the walls on the 
Wes tof the city, the magnificent but mournful 
spectacle was witnessed by members of the 
National Assembly. 

The scene of destruction, viewed from a dis- 
tance, indeed presented a wondrous sight. But 
a near approach developed the magnitude of 
the disaster and the terror of the event. Tongues 
of flame streamed from the public buildings, and 
embers hurled from the great heights of these 
central objects in the areas of fire, spread wide 
the measure of havoc. The continuous roar 
of cannon and mitrailleuses was mingled with 
the crackle of flames and the crash of falling 
buildings. Occasionally an explosion made the 
earth tremble and sent showers of fiery sparks on 
their mission of destruction. The towering domes 
of palaces rocked and fell before the progress of 
the conflagration as great trees wave and sink before 
the gale. And over the whole hung a canopy of 
smoke and cinders so lurid, so murky, as to almost 
shut out the light of the sun and completely hide 
the celestial dome at night. At intervals torrents 
of flame leaped through the clouds of smoke and 
illumined the sky, discovering to those at long 
distances from the scene the immensity of the con- 
flagration. The air was filled with burning sheets 
of paper and rolls of parchment, carried high on 
the heated atmosphere from archives and libraries. 
Hundreds of buildings were razed; among these 
many of the grandest and most beautiful in the 
world, engulfed in this sea of flame, soon 
left but blackened walls and dismal ash pits 
to mark the place where stood the pride of 
Europe's proudest capital. 



164 'fHK PARIS eOMMtJNS. 

Thursday, May 25 — When the street hostili- 
ties began the Tuileries and the Hotel de Ville 
were vomiting smoke, flame and sparks like rival 
volcanoes. The Assembly's military chiefs had 
been censured by the press and public of France 
and other countries for prolonging the combat, the 
result of which was a foregone conclusion. Thurs- 
day's work was rapid and bloody. 

Early in the day Thiers sent a dispatch to the 
prefects, which show^s the tenor of the Versailles 
sentiment: "The soil of Paris is strewn with dead 
bodies. This horrible spectacle will serve, it is 
hoped, as a lesson to the insurgents who dared to 
declare themselves partisans of the Commune. 
The army has been admirable. * * * ^)jq loss 
among our troops has been very slight.'* 

Men fighting behind barricades as were the 
Communists, must be much less likely to inj ury 
than the attacking forces. But it will be noticed 
that the soil is strewn with dead bodies, and the 
' * loss among our troops has been very slight." The 
latter is a questionable statement, but the murder 
of prisoners did " strew the soil with bodies," and 
taught the Communists and the proletarians of the 
world the lesson that death is the lot of the worker 
under capitalism, whether in slavish submission 
or open revolt. 

The fury of revenge was on ; a carnival of 
death was instituted. Kvery soldier was at liberty 
to inflict death upon any one he chose to denounce, 
or over whose person he. gained control.* 

During the days after the entrance of the 
Assembly's troops, denunciations were common . 

*"That there were very many innocent people killed there can be no 
donht."—Washburne. 

*"To point out a man as a Communard was almost certain death, and that 
there were a great many innocent people killed there can be very little doubt. 
Arrests were made by the government authorities by the wholesale. Th« 
innocent and the ffuilty were alike embraced."— TTasft&ttrne. 



THE BI.OODY tVEKK. 1 65. 

Private grievances^ were settled by the persons 
who first obtained a hearing with the Versaillese 
officers. To be pointed out as a Communist was 
almost equivalent to a death sentence. Obnoxious 
creditors, political enemies, family quarrels — all 
found the revenge so easy of attainment. 

** I turned sad and sick, from the spectacle of 
wanton destruction, to be saddened and sickened 
yet further by another spectacle. Versaillist 
soldiers, hanging about the foot of the Rue St. 
Honore, were enjoying the cheap amusement of 
Communard hunting. Very eager in this patriotic 
duty were the dear creatures of women. They 
knew the rat-holes into which the poor devils has 
squeezed themselves, and they guided the Ver- 
saillist soldiers to the spot with a fiendish glee. 
Voila, the brave of France, returned to such a 
triumph from an inglorious captivity! They have 
found him, then, the miserable! Yes, they have 
seized him from out one of the purlieus which 
Haussmann had not time to sweep away, and a 
guard of six of them hem him round as they 
march him into the Rue St. Honore. A tall, pale, 
hatless man, with something not ignoble in his 
bearing. His lower lip is trembling, but his brow 
is firm, and the eye of him has some pride and 
indeed scorn in it. *'A veritable Communard ? " 
I ask of my neighbor in the throng, " Question- 
able," is the reply; " I think he is a milk-seller to 
whom the woman who has denounced him owes a 
score." They yell, the crowd, — my neighbor as 
loud as any, — ''Shoot him! Shoot him!" — the 
demon-woman most clamorous, of course. An 
arm goes up into the air; there are on it the 
stripes of a non-commissioned officer, and there 
is a stick in the fist at the end of the arm. The 
itick descends on the bare head of the pale 



1 66: THK PARIS COMMUNB. 

prisQtier.:. Ha! the infjeGtion has caught;. mcLa 
club, t^eir rifles and bring them down oh- that 
head, or clash them into splinters in their lust for, 
murder. He is down; he is up again; he is down 
again— the thuds of the gun-stocks sounding on 
him just as when a man beats a carpet with a 
stick. ^ They are firing into the flaccid carcass 
now; thronging around it as it lies prone, like 
blow-flies on a piece of meat. Faugh! his brains 
are out and oozing into the gutter, whither the 
carrion is presently heaved bodily, to be trodden 
on and mangled presently by the feet of multitudes 
and the wheels of gun-carriages."* 

Thus the work of "order" went on. 

Milliere was captured in the house of a relative 
after firing on his captors with a pistol. He 
had been active in attempts to get a peaceful 
arrangement of affairs, but, seeing the utter de-, 
pravity of the Assembly, he became zealous in 
resi^sting them on behalf of the Commune. After 
his capture he was brought before General de 
Gissey and staff". His firm demeanor exasperated 
the commanders. Milliere was conducted to the 
door of the Pantheon, where he was first placed 
with his back to the troops to receive his death; 
but to more humiliate the brave man, he was com- 
manded to kneel, facing his executioners. 

Garcin, the officer in charge, said that the 
order was that Milliere should *' die kneeling, and 
asking pardon of society, for the ill he had done." 
Two men forced him to his knees. Milliere un- 
covered his breast, and cried "Vive le Republique] 
Vive le Peuple! Vive I'Humanite.'* Here he fell 
riddled with bullets, and an officer rushed up and 
shot him through the head with a revolver.. 
Milliere was a doctor of laws, had been elected a 

* Archibft^ld Forbes, 



THE BLOODY WEEK, 1 67 

m^ember of . tiie National Assembly, but resigned 
to support the Communal cause. He was much ad^ 
mired and respected by those with whom he was 
associated. 

Jules Valles was taken prisoner early on 
Thursday morning. He was immediately led out 
to be shot. His captors could not restrain them- 
selves till they reached the place they had fixed 
upon as the place of execution. One of them 
struck him on the back of the head. M. Valles 
turned upon him, exclaiming, "A Tassassin!" 
Another then struck him a violent blow on the 
back with his musket. His spine was broken by 
the blow ; and the poor man fell to the ground, 
fixing upon his murderers a look of the greatest 
horror. All now fell upon him ; some firing upon 
him, and some thrusting their bayonets through 
his hands, neck and face. Still he was not. dead, 
when one soldier, perhaps better than the rest, 
shot him through the head. 

Thursday forenoon funeral ceremonies were 
held over Dombrowski's body at Pere-La chaise 
cemetery. Vermorel made an address containing 
a severe invective against the Federates, whom the 
speaker declared " had deserted the General at the 
time he was shot." Vermorel gave a glowing 
tribute to the virtues and talents of the dead 
soldier, and closed by saying : 

Friends : It is meet that we here who stand by the grave of Dom- 
browski should not sob. We here who see that the Cause for this 
once is lost let us not cry out in the face of death. For we leave his 
new-made grave only for a day or an hour. Yes, thou mighty Shade, 
resting now but little ways above us, tarry until we come to keep 
thee company. We shall not let thee go alone, dear friend, nor unat- 
tended. But a short space of time, and we who now surround your 
bloody corpse, with souls set free from tyrants' chains, will stand 
beside thee. 

We are men who have blood that we may shed Instead of tears. 
And it being so let the world weep for whom we die,— not we, who go 



168 THB PARIS COMMUNE. 

out glad-hearted saluting Death, and striking off our fetters with » 
smile. 

If we have tears at all 'tis but because this man who drew his 
sword for Freedom in every struggling land, whose life was made up of 
glory, of years of toil for others, whose heart had no selfish spot, who 
was so great, and wise, and brave, and true, should have fallen be- 
fore his eyes were gladdened by the dawning light. We, who sur- 
round him now, behold Lt 1 For I say unto you that this precious 
martyr's blood holds the seeds of the Morning. I tell you that those 
who shall weep are the poor, the toilers, the slaves. I tell you that 
weeping for us they shall wake to finish what we have begun I What 
think ye will they find most precious, the gold of Capital or the 
martyr's blood that stains it? 

Let us not weep, my brothers, we have now naught else to do but 
die. 

Dombrowski was dressed in a Polish jacket, 
rested upon a Federate blanket, and was wrapped 
in a red flag. Those gathered there took a last 
look at their dead leader. Dombrowski 's brother 
wrote a few words in pencil on the coffin. The 
simple ceremonies were so touching that it is said 
there was not one present but that shed tears. 
Those who attended the funeral went immediately 
to the defence of the barricade. 

Fort Montrouge, Bic^tre and Ivry, after an 
intermittent defence, surrendered to the Ver- 
saillese. Delescluze had ordered Ragowski, com- 
mander at Ivry, to explode the four powder 
magazines on evacuation. One magazine exploded, 
but the debris resulting from this explosion 
extinguished the fuse, preventing further destruc- 
tion of the fort. Wrobleski ordered Leo Meillet, 
commander at Bic^tre, to evacuate and explode 
the magazines. This was frustrated by the rapid 
advance of the Versaillese, which hastened the 
abandonment. At the fall of these forts and the 
redoubts of Hautes Bruyers and Villejuif, 6,000 
or 8,000 men were captured by the Versaillese. 
Serizier attended to the transfer of 20 Dominican 
monks to the city. They were taken to the 




V 



THE BI^OODY WEEK. 169 

diseiplinary prison on the Boulevard d' Italie, where 
there were confined a hundred or more insubordi- 
nate Federates and some persons arrested under 
suspicion of being spies. 

The Gobelin tapestry factory was now held 
by Serizier for a time, but was relinquished and 
set on fire. 

The Assembly's troops advanced rapidly. The 
barricades were being flanked, and the position 
was desperate, 

Louis Boin (known as Bob^che) in charge 
of the disciplinary prison was absent when an 
order came from Serizier to send the Dominicans 
to work on the barricades. Boin's assistant sent 
some National Guards instead of the priests. 
When Boin returned to the prison he was infuriated, , 
and exclaimed: ** Shall patriots be sacrificed while 
these priests do nothing." He ordered them out 
to the barricade. The Friar of the Dominicans 
refused to assist in the street defence. Boin then, 
according to orders which he now received from 
Serizier, called upon the *' skull caps" (priests) to 
" come out and save themselves." As they came, 
out, one at a time, as ordered, they were shot at 
by a party of volunteers, men and women, headed 
by Serizier. Those who escaped the fusillade 
were hunted and shot in the neighboring streets. 
The streets and the windows of the houses were 
filled with spectators, who exhibited, by cheers 
and laughter, their amusement at the terror of the. 
priests and at their frantic efibrts to escape. 
Eight did get away. The prison was soon after' 
surrounded by Versaillese, and the Federates and 
others in the neighborhood attempted to escape 
with but ill success, as they were shown no. 
quarter. 



170 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

TThe Butte aux Cailles, the Austerlitz and 
Bercy bridges and a number of strong positions 
and a large number of prisoners h%d fallen to the 
Versaillese. The Communist gunboats had been 
taken and turned on the Federates, who, falling 
back, fired the huge graneries, 400 yards in length. 
The railway station and Mazas prison were taken 
by the Versaillese and Garreau, governor of Mazas, 
was immediately shot. He had been confined by 
his subordinates, whose sympathies were for the 
Assembly. Food had been scarce ; the prisoners 
had been ofi'ered freedom, but they remained 
rather than defend the barricades in behalf of the 
Commune, which they would have been forced to 
do had they left prison. 

It was decided in the afternoon to transfer the 
numerous hostages held in La Roquette prisons to 
Belleville Mairie and church. Bmile Gois, at 
the head of 35 Federates, now undertook the 
transfer of as many as possible. On an order from 
Ferre, Francois, the prison governor, ordered 52 
hostages given over to the Federates ; these 
were 11 priests, 4 secret agents of the Empire and 
37 gen d' amies. Immediately after leaving the 
prison, Gois called on the commander of a Federate 
battalion defending a barricade for extra men to 
increase the convoy, the populace showing sympa- 
thy for the prisoners. The request was granted. 
It proved unnecessary, as the people of the next 
quarter menaced the prisoners as they were taken 
toward Rue de Puebla. At this point some Fed- 
erates, driven in from the West, asked that the 
prisoners be given them to be shot forthwith. The 
hostages were, however, taken to the Belleville 
Mairie,* where they were received by Ranvier, who 
immediately said to them: *' You have a quarter of 
an hour in which to make your wills if you wish." 



The BI.OODY WEEK. 171 

The populace was vociferous in its demands for 
their execution, supposing, apparently, that they 
were prisoners taken in battle. An impromptu 
cortege was formed, with clarions and drums rank- 
ing behind a vivandiere carrying a sword and 
astride a horse. Gen d' amies. Imperialists and 
priests, well guarded, in the order named, took up 
their march for the ramparts, which was to be the 
place of their execution The procession was 
headed by the horsewoman and enlivened by the 
sound of martial music, the populace taking a 
lively part in and evidently enj oying the proceed- 
ings. Stones and other missiles were hurled at the 
hostages, perspiring under the unwonted activity 
of their movements to keep up the swift pace 
adopted. The priests were especially susceptible 
to the unusual exertions, and their evident physi- 
cal distress made them the butt of ribaldry and 
ridicule. After some hesitation, during which the 
crowds were clamorous and tumultuous, the house 
at 83 De la Rue Haxo, the military headquarters of 
the district, was fixed on as the place of execution. 
In the house was Oudet, suffering from wounds; 
many other members and sympathizers of the Com- 
mune were here. Hippolyte Parent, now one of the 
principal Communal officers, was present. Varlin, 
seeing the intent of the affair, threw himself before 
the hostages as if to, protect them, and addressing 
Parent, begged the Committee Central to "show 
that they were not assassins." Parent was silent; 
helpless even had he wished to prevent the killing, 
which is extremely doubtful. Varlin insisted 
on speaking. The Federates and the populace 
desired to proceed with the shooting, and finally 
Varlin was carried away forcibly by his friends, 
the Federates saying : "Go, advocate; the men 
must die in justice of the people." The hostages 



:VJ2 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

were forced along toward a building in process of 
erection, and, imitating, the example of the 
vivandiere who struck one of the hostages with 
her sabre, a fusillade of shots was oegun by the 
Federates directed toward the prisoners, which 
continued until they were all dead. Now comes 
a recital unparalleled but well authenticated. 
The hostages were forced to jump over a low 
wall singly and were shot while taking the flight. 
''One priest refused to make the jump; a Federate 
attempted to throw him over, and the priest and 
soldier were both shot while struggling for the 
mastery." 

A more useless series of acts than these kill- 
ings of priests cannot well be imagined. When 
war is appealed to, the decisions of reason are sur- 
rendered to the passions and operations of brute 
force. That the lives of the hostages had been 
forfeited hundreds of times by the law of equal 
reprisals can not be questioned. That their destruc- 
tion was cruel none can deny. But "when men 
were compelled to fight in self-defence they must 
hate and avenge. This may be bad; but it is 
human nature.*'* ''War is immoral, yet we 
fight." 

Seven avenues or boulevards open in the 
Place du Chateau-d' Eau; all had been barricaded, 
and the capture of the approaches to these strong 
points occupied the day for the Versaillese, who 
were met by a stubborn and destructive resistance. 
The evening saw these barricades attacked, and 
the line of battle extended to hem in the strong- 
holds of these Federates. 

On the order of Ferre, Genton took from La 
Roquette prison the Mexican banker Jecker, and 

* Macaulay. - _ . _ 



assisted by Francois and Verig, conducted him to 
a vacant lot in the neighborhood and shot him. 

At Belleville Mairie, Trinquet, as a magistrate, 
sentenced a regular soldier named Rothe to death 
for simulating sickness to avoid service for the 
Commune. He was shot in the court of Mairie. 
Two Federates, by Trinquet's order, were also 
shot here for neglect of duty. 

The Place Royale was in the hands of the 
Versaillese, and it was intended by them to attack 
the Place de la Bastile in the morning. Marquis 
de Segoyer, commanding the advance battalion, 
making a personal reconnoitre about midnight, was 
set upon and killed, and his valuables were missing 
when his corpse was found in the morning. His 
body was burned by his clothing becoming ignited 
by embers blown from the surrounding fires, and 
it was commonly reported that the Federates had, 
after capturing him, applied petroleum, and 
burned him to death. His wounds and the charac- 
ter of the burns on his body disproved this story 
advanced by the friends of the dead officer. 

By nightfall all the territory south of the Seine 
was in the hands of the Assembly's troops. 

As the Federates retreated they left a trail of 
flame. A great number of fires were undoubtedly 
ignited by the shells of the Versaillese, and it has 
been declared that manj^ fires were actually set by 
agents of the Assembly, in order that nothing 
should be left undone which should bring disre- 
pute upon the Communists.* 

It is estimated that more than 200 fires were 
burning this night — 25th-26th — some of immense 
magnitude . The result of Thursday's fighting was 
that but the northeast part of the city was left in 
the hands of the Federates. 

♦"Several Sergens de Ville, from the Versailles Government were caught 
with incendiary shells in Paris."— S/fe^c/tie?/. 



174 ^HK PARIS COMMtfNE 

Friday, May 26 — A space of about j5ve square 
miles was the limit of territory held by the Com- 
mune when Friday dawned, and the encirclement 
of the Communist positions was the first work of 
the Versaillese. Place de la Bastile, Place du Trone^ 
Point Villette, Place Prince^^ Eugene, the Buttes 
Chaumont and the Pere-Lachaise cemetery, the 
last two positions having strong artillery equip- 
ments, were the principal posts of defense. 

The Federates, strongly intrenched at the 
Place de la Bastile, were flanked by the Versailles 
troops. No more severe fighting characterized 
the defence than that at this point, and the 
defenders were skillfully disposed and officered. 
Several hundreds of prisoners were taken by the 
Versaillese. The total loss of life was appalling; 
piles of the dead, lying where they fell, lined the 
ground back of the defences and the streets were 
plentifully strewn with the corpses of those which 
had *^^ fallen from the ranks of the victors. A 
hundred bodies of Federates were found behind 
one barricade. As the Federates retreated, fires 
sprung up in the Rue de la Roquette. The Place 
du Trone, to which the P'ederates had retired, 
was assaulted and taken toward evening, the same 
scenes as at the. Place de la Bastile being repeated. 

On the North the Federates were gradually 
forced back, though their artillery continually 
poured a deadly fire on the advancing Versaillese. 
As the Federates were driven from La Villette and 
vicinity, fires appeared in the docks, in the im- 
mense warehouses (containing huge stores of wine, 
oil and dried fish) bonded stores, sugar refineries, 
and in the workshops of the Paris Carriage Com- 
pany. In this building a tremendous amount of 
provisions, (stored by the Government... of.. the 
National Defence) were destroyed, with more than 



THE BI^OODY WEKK. 175 

700 carriages, in all one of the greatest of the pro- 
digious fires of the week. Many Federates were 
shot when captured, accused of setting fires, and 
some were imprisoned by the victors in the burn- 
ing buildings and roasted to death. 

Delescluze was chided by his associates for a 
short absence from the headquarters ; taking his 
hat and cane he walked into the heat of the com- 
bat, and was killed. He left the War Ofiice about 
3 p. m.,and at the Chateau d'Kau, was struck by 
three bullets. He was dressed in civilian attire, 
and was evidently filled with deepest emotion, for 
he silently pressed the hands of those he passed, 
evidently bent on seeking his death, as he had 
promised, beside those who were battling for the 
cause. 

This sketch of Delescluze is from the pen of 
William Du Gas Trammell. 

•'Louis Charles Delescluze, the Tancred of the Commune, was 
born at Deux in 1809. In his youthful days, he resided in Paris and 
studied law, which he abandoned because he said it was the " logio 
of rascals to shield murder and theft." He was imprisoned in 1834 
for taking part in the April Revolution. This was the first of his long 
series of punishments for political offenses. He went to Belgium in 
1835 to escape punishment for a political conspiracy. He returned to 
Paris, where he founded a journal called the Revolution Democratiquc 
et Sociale. This publication soon brought him fifteen months' im- 
prisonment and a 20,000 franc fine. 

After a liberty of about eight years he was sentenced to trans- 
portation. He was in England, and remained there for some time 
after the sentence was passed, but returned to Paris in 1853, and was 
immediately transferred to Belle Isle and finally to Cayenne. These 
sojourns lasted until 1858, when an amnesty allowed him to return t j 
Paris. He immediately founded another journal Le Reveil, which 
brought him three terms of imprisonment and as many fines within a 
year. 

He met Gambon on the way, Delescluze only said " Lost again. 
Humanity will look to another time, and may be to another place, 
but the final triumph cannot be far off. It will be sufficient reward 
if we hastened it. 

The people had been at their post in the midst of this horrible 
scene for 13 hours— many of them for two days. They were covered 



176 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

with sweat, many of them with blood, and blackened with powder. 
The ground was strewn with splinters, balls and fragments of shells. 
I'he gutters were flowing with blood. Delescluze took his place 
-at the barricade and commenced firing with his revolver. The car- 
nage was now fearful. The walls were battered down and the people 
were falling thick under the fire of the chassepots About two o'clock 
they were fiercely assaulted at every point. Exhausted with fatigue, 
more than half of them dead on the ground, and overpowered on 
every side, the brave people, though they fought with the fury of 
despair, were all either killed or disarmed.^ Not a man, not a woman, 
not a child surrendered. Every one fought till the last; till the 
soldiers, sick of carnage, wrested their arms from them. Late in the 
afternoon the body of Delescluze was found riddled with balls and 
surrounded by the corpses of 28 soldiers. And the next day it was 
offtcially announced by the Versailles Government that "the too 
guilty Delescluze had been picked up dead by the troops of General 
Clinchant. 

Delescluze, forgetful of self, lived a life entirely devoted to the 
cause of the poor and oppressed; and when the hour came he em- 
braced death, as he had devoted his life without a murmur and with- 
out a regret. His heroism will ever live, in spite of all princes and 
politicians and priesthoods, to elevate the affection, clear the visions 
and strengthen the arms of heroes." 

Vermorel, who accompanied Delescluze, was 
wounded, captured and taken to Versailles, where 
he died three weeks later.* 

Vermorel was born at Denice near Lyons in 1841. His education 
was completed at a very early age and at twenty he was engaged on 
two opposition papers, Le Jeune France and La Jeunesse. These 
papers were quickly suppressed and Vermorel received a term of 

* Vermorel is said to have accompanied Delescluze for the purpose of 
" watching him, as Delescluze had been accused by some of his colleagues of 
being about to desert. 

Delescluze, shortly before his death, declared the Commune's cause 
lost. "For me," he said, "I feel that my last political struggle against 
Monarchy and Imperialism is at an end. I shall die myself, I know; but I 
feel convinced that for every drop of mine and the Commune's blood, five 
men will one day spring forward to avenge us, and to establish, in a few 
-years, that which, owing to our backwood education, have failed to estab- 
lish now." 

The body of Delescluze was secreted or destroyed by the Versaillese, for 
fear it might at some future time be buried with ceremonies which would 
arouse the insurrectionary spirit. Delescluze is the only man in military 
position during the Commune who wore no uniform, gold lace or insignia. 

It has been stated that Delescluze, recognizing his inability to fill th© 
position of head of War Department, was in constant secret communication 
-withRossel, who gave advice regarding the conduct of military afifairs. 



THE BtOODY WEEK. 177 

imprisonment for his connection with them. He was subject to the 
vicissitudes of a revolutionary journalist's career, undergoing 
several years imprisonment and being compelled to abandon a 
Journal which he had begun on account of the multiplicity of fine« 
Imposed upon it, During the siege of Paris, he served as a private in 
the National Guards.* 

The Mairie of the 20th arrondissement— Belle- 
ville — was now the central point of the Communal 
defence, and the limited number of members of 
the Commune and of the Committee Central 
who were on the scene of action, showed that there 
had been many desertions from the central bodies. 
It was openly alleged that many had disguises 
prepared to aid in their escape ; some had been 
captured in disguise, and the disappearance of a 
member even for a few moments excited the 
distrust of the leaders. It was this suspicion 
which had met Delescluze, and recriminations re- 
garding the intentions of members were common 
and open. The nearness of the approaching line 
of battle increased every feeling of revenge and 
distrust in the hearts of the caged leaders of the 
declining defence. 

The universal thing in Paris was disorder. 
The populace, the Federates and Communal leaders 
were filled with anxiety, confusion and despair ; 
nothing more clearly illustrates their condition 
than the running from one barricade to another ; 
the absence of discipline ; and in the awful disre- 
gard for death exhibited by the men at the last 
stands, or the women who, crying " Vive la Com- 
mune," rushed on the bayonets or sabres of the 
invaders.t 

* Wm. Du Gas Trammell. 

t An English medical student writing of the Commune says: "I saw a 
battalion of women fighting with Snyder rifles. Among them were many 
pretty young girls. They fought like devils; far better than the men; and I 
hadthe pain of seeing 62 of them shot down, ev«n when th^y had be«n s^^-. 
roundel by troops and disarmed." ' '' 



J78 ^Hi: PARIS COMMUNB. 

The courage of the Communists was un- 
daunted. They fought with endless vigor and 
tenacity.* 

"That their position was desperate was 
beyond a doubt; and this they quite recognized, 
but were resolute to hold on to the bitter end. 
Their efforts were really heroic. * Above the 
smoke of the villainous gunpowder the summer 
sun was shining brightly, and spite of the powder- 
stench and the smell of blood the air was. balmy." 

Bdouard Moreau, the prominent Central Com- 
mitteeman, in endeavoring to escape from the city, 
was captured, disguised as a woman; after a form 
of trial, he was shot at Versailles. A man was 
erroneously denounced as Billioray, and although 
he protested, was shot without much effort to 
identify him. It was afterward discovered that the 
person shot was a peaceful noncombatant. Another 
by name Yaillant, thought to be the Communist 
of that name, narrowly escaped death. There 
were scores of such cases. The last vestige of con- 
sideration for human life had now left the invaders. 

The Place d' Chateau d' Eau fell into the 
hands of the Versaillese. It was the stronghold, 
next to Montmartre, most formidable yet encoun- 
tered. Its defence was valorous, but the lack of 
discipline and numbers finally yielded. The loss 
of life on both sides was very great. Brunei was 
wounded, and Lisbonne wounded and captured. 
At this encounter about 40,000 troops were engaged. 

* In many cases the National Guards, refusing to surrender, were hewn 
down behind the barricades. * * The fighting was long, desperate 
and severe. The insurgents fought at every step with fury «nd despair.— 
Washburne. 

The independent soldiery " Avengers of Paris " and others were active 
in the street fifrhting and the women and boys of the working-classes were » 
very considerable factor in the biarricade building and defence; indeed it has 
been asserted that the. women and boys contributed more to the energy and 
stubbornness of this branch of warfare than did the Federates. 



*rHE BtOODY WEEK. 1 79 

Ithe prisoners, taken by the Versaillese, abused 
and maltreated though they were while being 
hurried through the streets, bore in most instances 
upon their faces the pride of their cause. 

Advantageous positions for renewing the fray 
in the morning were taken by both sides, and the 
final struggles were fought by the desperate Fed- 
erates against such odds and numbers as to be 
absolutely hopeless,^partaking more of the aspect 
of a massacre than of a battle. 

Jules Favre addressed a telegram to all diplo- 
matic representation of France in foreign coun- 
tries, requesting to have stopped and returned all 
fugitives from the Commune. 

Treilhard was shot at the Place du Pantheon. 

Vesinier, for a time editor of the Journal 
Officiel of the Commune, was arrested. 

Saturday, May 27— A day of sombre aspect, 
cloudy and rainy. Not less than 75,000 troops 
were massed about the remnants of the Communal 
defence whose troops now numbered but a few 
thousands. On three sides the Communists were 
menaced by their adversaries and on the fourth, 
outside the walls, was the German force which 
captured and hurried fugitives to the Versaillese 
headquarters. Numberless barricades faced the 
Assembly's troops and as fast as they were taken, 
others sprang up to oppose the advance. 

Paving stones, sacks of earth, household 
furniture — all furnished materials for the barri- 
cades. Youths of tender years proved adepts 
at overturning carts as a nucleus for the street 
defences, and men, women and children assisted in 
every manner in the construction and maintenance 
of the street positions . The belligerents forced ajl 
pedestrians to assist in the work of building barri- 



l8o i^HK 1»ARIS COMMUNE. 

cades; messengers, on the most important errands, 
were sometimes compelled to work for a half 
hour or an hour. Carriers of military orders were 
not excluded from these forced labors. In this 
way, the disadvantages of the Federates were 
increased by the uncertainty of communication 
between commanders and the consequent failure 
in the distribution of supplies. 

The transfer of ammunition was interrupted 
and at many of the barricades the Federates fought 
until their last shot was fired. ^ Refusing to sur- 
render, they were overcome in the hand-to-hand 
struggle by the force of numbers, and cut to pieces 
by the bayonets and sabres of the Versaillese. 

Wrobleski and Ranvier were foremost in the 
direction of defensive operations through this 
week of blood and fire. 

Ferre wished to take more prisoners and hos- 
tages from I^a Grande Roquette, but by con- 
nivance with the keepers, the prisoners barricaded 
themselves in their cells, which were locked and 
the keys hid by the prison attendants. Francois, 
the Governor of the prison, was ordered by Ferre 
to get the prisoners ready for transfer; this was 
now unsuccessfully attempted. Poiret, a warden 
of the prison, advised the prisoners to resist. An 
imprisoned National Guard said " They want to 
kill the priests; let us not risk our lives for theirs." 
Nearly all those confined at length joined in the 
resistance. The prisoners, taken in battle, (1400 in 
number) were removed by Ferre's order from 
Petite Roquette to the Church of St. Jean Bap- 
tiste, with the intention, through them, of making 
more favorable terms with the Versaillese. This 
church was soon after taken by the Assembly's 

*" Nothing could exceed the eoura.ge and the desperation of the insur* 
g'eitts who fought until the last pound of ammunition was exhausted."-- 
Washburne. - 



THE BLOODY WEEK. l8l 

troops. When Ferre returned to La Grand 
Roquette he also unsuccessfully attempted to dis- 
lodge the entrenched prisoners. Threats, prom- 
ises, smoke — all were of no avail, and, while this 
was going on, the alarm of the approach of the 
Versaillese caused the scattering of those who 
were endeavoring to remove the prisoners. Four 
of those in confinement — a government official and 
three priests, one of whom wasMgr. Serat — con- 
cluded to seek liberty. These were met by a party 
of Federates, who, on ascertaining who the four 
were, marched them to the wall of the Petite 
Roquette, where they were shot. 

The character of the engagements of Satur- 
day was even fiercer, more murderous and brutal 
in detail than those of the previous days. The 
guns at Montmartre were turned on the artillery 
position at the Buttes Chaumont; and other artil- 
lery, from a nearly opposite position, raked the 
Buttes and assisted the Versaillese in subduing 
these works and in the general engagement. 

A charge was made late in the evening upon the 
barricades, and the Buttes, with a large number of 
prisoners were taken, after severe losses on both 
sides. Huge amounts of ammunition and pro- 
visions fell into the hands of the Versaillese. 

At the close of the day, a mile in diameter was 
the extent of the Communist possessions, with the 
exception of the Fauburg du Temple, whose 
defenders had shown such a resistance as to hold 
the Versaillese at bay though the odds in numbers 
were immensely against them. 

During these last days, a body known as the 
Versaillese Court Martial sat at the Chatelet 
Theatre. It left no record of its proceedings, if it 
ever kept any and was rather a court of sentence 
than one of trial. The prisoners w^ho were brought 



182 TH^ PARIS COMMUN:^. 

before this fearful tribunal, with scarcely a single 
exception, found there way to the abattoir at the 
Lobau barracks. It is evident that this Court 
Martial was established for the sole purpose of 
giving a semblance of legality to slaughter of the 
Communards. The Versaillese would have ex- 
hibited as much regard for justice and humanity 
had they slain the prisoners as fast as captured 
as by subjecting them to this murderous farce of a 
military trial. 

Lissagaray says the questions occupied about 
a quarter of a minute. " Were you taken with 
arms? Have you served the Commune? Show 
your hands," were the inquiries. 

The Court continued to sit until June 3d, 
when the decomposing bodies of thousands of the 
dead threatened a pestilence. Only then did it 
desist from its labor of assassination. Little at- 
tempt was made to dispose of the corpses which 
lay festering in the sun and clouds of flesh-flies 
and flocks of crows filled in this horrid scene of 
wholesale human butchery which is without a 
parallel in modern times. The wholesale execu- 
tions were now not limited to the work of mus- 
ketry fire. The mitrailleuses were turned upon 
the crowds of prisoners, and the dead and dying, 
broken and mangled victims were piled up in 
heaps or left as they fell. Through the night of 
Friday-Saturday, and for days and nights follow- 
ing, groans and cries, from heaps of bodies, were 
of common occurrence. Such scenes, it may with 
safety be asserted, were never spread on civilized 
soil. St. Bertholomew's day called for its victims, 
but they were not penned up and mowed down 
with mitrailleuses. It was left for the incarnation 
of capitalism, the National Assembly, to use the 
machine-gun for satiating its blood lust against 



THE BLOODY WEEK. 183 

workers of Paris.* ** To compare these murderers 
with any members of the animal kingdom, let 
alone with savages, would be more than unjust to 
the brute or the savage."t 

"Outside the Madeleine Church, on one of the 
days of street fighting, a horrible scene occurred. A 
strong man, apparently in liquor, refused to con- 
tinue his route. He was seized by four troopers, 
and dragged along the ground, amid the hoots and 
yells of the crowd, until an officer shot him 
through the head, just as the people were coming 
out of the Madeleine, with their missals in their 
hands. The crowd shrieked " Hurrah, hurrah !" 
with the exception of one man, who gave vent to 
an exclamation of horror, and was immediately 
seized by the soldiers, and dragged away. Among 
the prisoners were several children, not more than 
12 years of age, and they appear to have been 
treated much as their elders were. The prisoners 
captured at barricades were generally shot off- 
hand, and even those who were reserved for trial 
stood a very good chance of being slaughtered 
meanwhile on the slighest provocation." 

As the contest closed in on them the Com- 
munards sought every means of escape. Many 
thought they could retreat by the Prussian lines;; 
but all passage was refused them and they were 
left no resource but absolute surrender. 

♦You shaU parish, whatever you do 1 If you are taken with arms 
In your hands— death I If you use them— death I If you beg for mercy 
— death! Whichever way you turn, right, left, back, forward, up, 
down— death I You are not merely outside the law, you aro outside 
humanity. Neither age nor sex shall save you and yours. You shall 
die, but first you shall taste the agony of your -uufe, your sister, 
your mother, your sons and daughters, even 4;hose in the cradle! 
Before your eyes the wounded man shall be taken out of the am- 
bulance and hacked with bayonets or knocked down with the butt- 
end of a rifle. He shall be dragged living by his broken leg or 
bleeding arm and flung like a suffering, groaning, bundle of refuse, 
into the gutter. Death 1 Death I Death ! "— " Historie Populaire :^ 
Parlemmtarie de la Commun& <i§ Paris," par Arthur ArnoiUd, 

tBax. " 



I$4 THE, PARIS COMMUNE. 

The Last Days of flay — 

Sunday, May 28 — The war is over. The 
bloodiest week of the struggle is past. A contingent 
of caged and enraged insurrectionists are at the 
mercy of a huge army. The Commune's support 
is at its last gasp. No hope for relief, no possi- 
bility for a renewal of the combat bringing else 
than death and disaster. At 5 a. m. the Ver- 
saillese took the prison La Roquette. Varig was 
promptly shot and the hostages were released. 
The headquarters on Rue Haxo w^re soon taken 
from the Communists, with 2,000 prisoners. 

Tony Moillin was captured Saturday night 
and shot at 5 o'clock Sunday morning, the 
shooting being delayed that he might marry a 
woman with whom he lived, and who was enciente. 
The ceremony took place at 2 o'clock, being per- 
formed by Mayor Herisson, whom Moillin had, after 
two unsuccessful attempts, displaced from the 
Mairie of the 6th arrondissement on March 2 2d. 

When Grand Roquette prison w^as captured, 
the 140 Federates confined there were taken to Pere 
Lachaise cemetery by the Versaillese and shot in 
groups of ten. From Petite Roquette, 127 were 
also taken out and shot in groups — all this being 
done without the slightest formality of charge or 
trial, or even of sentence, by other than the lower 
officers of the Versaillese. Augustine Ranvier, 
Governor of St. Pelagie Prison, was found hung, 
having committed suicide. He was a brother of 
Gabriel Ranvier. The last places taken were 
Fanburg du Temple and the Rue de la Fontaine 
au Roi, where a few dozen Federates, under Piat, 
had made a particularly gallant, stand but finally 
surrendered. 

The heights of Belleville was the place of the 



THK I^AST DAYS OF MAY. 1 85 

closing Struggle. The Federates held out until 
their ammunition was exhausted and until every 
form of fortified defence was destro3ed. I^ate in 
the afternoon a few hundred surrendered, march- 
ing to the Versaillese line with arms reversed, a 
silent and sorrowful procession. They laid down 
their arms and were surrounded and hurried away. 
The last red flag that floated for the Com- 
mune was at a barricade at the Rue Fontaine au 
Roi, where, after a feeble defence it was surren- 
dered at II a. m. 

The last entrenchment was taken at about noon 
on the Rue de Paris. This barricade was held by 
a single man for a quarter of an hour after his 
companions had fallen, and wonderful to relate, 
this last combatant escaped with his life.* 

Gambon, Geresme, T. Ferre, Lacord and 
several members of the Commune, on Sunday 
morning, accompanied by a guard of 40 Federates 
and 15 boys from the foundling asylum in the Rue 
d'Enfer, withdrew to the Mairie of the 20th arron- 
dissement. This was the last body which marched 
with the red flag in the Commune. Early in the 
afternoon this body surrendered, Gambon first 
making a speech from a barricade. f 

The aspect of Sunday was even more dismal 
and oppressive than that of Saturday. The trees 
of the Tuileries Gardens, where the concert had 
been announced for the afternoon, were broken, 
singed and blackened. Foul odors from decom- 
posing corpses filled the air which a week before 

*Bax 

t " I have passed thirty years of my life in sacrificing myself for the 
Republic and Liberty. I have given everything to the people, and to-day 
the people abandon me. I have made the sacrifice of my life for the cowards 
who flee from danger when it meets them face to face. I swear that if I 
escape I will never again give an instant of my life or one of my thoughts to 
these men. Citizens, the great cause is again lost; the Commune is killed by 
those who had sworn to make it triumph or to die, and who have not even 
defended it." 



1 86 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

was fragrant with the smell of verdure, and the 
sounds of music were supplanted by the rattle of 
guns, and the groans of the wounded and dying. 
Great numbers of those who had participated in 
the festivities of a week before were making 
an attempt to escape, were languishing in 
prison or had been killed and added to the heaps 
of corpses. The streets which had a week before 
been filled with the happy faces of the pleasure- 
loving populace, now echoed the monotonous 
tramp of the prisoner, whose begrimed and de- 
jected countenance told of battles fought and 
hopes deceived. 

Varlin, overcome with grave ^nd melancholy 
reflections, every hope of h.'s manly life over- 
thrown, every intention of his public acts de- 
feated, wandering, heart-sick and weary, sat down 
at midday on the curbstone in the midst of Ver- 
saillese patrols at the Square Montholon. A 
priest called the attention of the patrol and Varlin 
was arrested, his hands tied behind him, and he 
was marched for trial to Montmartre. On the way 
he was insulted by the fickle populace; his death 
was demanded; and the guard could scarcely get 
him to the Military Court. The Court sat in a 
house on the Rue de Rosiers — the house where 
Lecomte and Clement Thomas had been killed on 
March i8th. On the way Varlin was frightfully 
maltreated and disfigured — one eye being torn 
from its socket and his head was a mass of blood 
— he had to be carried at last. He was, after a slight 
interrogation, sentenced to death. Tliis news,4on 
being made known to the populace, was greeted 
with joyful shouts. They demanded that he be 
paraded around the Butte. His brains were 
finally dashed out with the butt-ends of the 
muskets of ihe soldiers. Thus perished one of 



THE lyAST DAYS OF MAY. 1 87 

the most intelligent, honest and zealous of the 
Communal leaders. 

In 1863, by French governmental desire, a delegation of working- 
men was sent to London to visit the great exhibition and to study 
products and industries. Varlin, afterward so prominent in the 
Commune, was one of the delegates, and later, resulting from consul- 
tation in London, one of the founders of the International in France. 
His absolute honesty is conceded, even by those who hated and killed 
him. He was a bookbinder and worked for his uncle, and Varlin 
disdained the proposition to marry a relative, though by this he would 
have inherited the business of his uncle Varlin asserted in declin- 
ing that he would be ashamed to live from the product of the labor of 
others. 

Cluseret and Varlin became acquainted in 1868 while imprisoned 
in Paris for political offenses. Cluseret was in New York and in 
correspondence with Varlin in 1870. (See p. 83^. 

Among men who are acquainted with the lives and characters of 
those foremost in the Communal uprising, there is an opinion generally 
entertained, that Varlin was, in all those essentials which mark the 
truly great man, the most distinguished. Though of very ordinary 
educational attainments, such as usually fall to the workingman 
of natural instincts of study, he had not accumulated habits of 
dissipation and the thoughtless use of leisure time, those habits 
which, unfortunately, are almost inseparable companions in the 
unambitious life of the average worker From Varlin's early 
youth he was interested in the welfare of his fellow toilers, 
and his studious mind found most interest in the theories 
which purported to need but an opportunity to emancipate the 
objects of his solicitude. The natural associates of the intelligent 
young worker were those in his walks of life and those of similar 
tendencies toward the society in which he lived. He was honest, he 
was capable, and, in the labor organizations rose high in the 
approbation of his fellows. The International Workingmen's 
Association opened to him a field for broader work and perhaps for 
the fulfilment of his wishes. As a representative in Central, 
National and International Congresses of his fellow- workers, he was 
often in conflict with those of less earnestness, he was at all limes 
respected by opponents as well as supporters. 

On Sunday morning the government at Ver- 
sailles declared " the expiations do not console us." 

J. Miot was shot at La Muette. Dufil, who, 
it is said ordered the shooting of Lecomte and 
Clement-Thomas, was shot to death with a pistol 
by the officer who captured hhn. 



I88 ^ THS PARIS COMMUNK. 

The rattle of shots is heard occasionally in 
the abattoir of the lyobou barracks, which indicates 
the shooting of parties of prisoners.* A stray 
shot indicates a Federate in hiding brought to 
bay, making a last effort to oppose capture, or a 
shot sent after a fugitive seeking safety in flight. 

The Commune is dead. 

Monday, May 29 — The only remaining Com- 
munist position — Fort Vincennes, outside the 
walls on the Fast, was taken by the Versaillese. 
Commander Eudes desired to surrender to the 
Germans, thinking to get passports out of the 
country. Vincennes surrendered with a large 
number of prisoners on Monday morning and 
Eudes and many others were immediately shot. 

Emile Eudes was a chemist's assistant, and had headed an 
insurrection in the North of Paris, and was under sentence of death 
for the killing of a fireman during this insurrection when the siege ol 
Paris by the Germans commenced. Eudes was 32 years of age and 
manager of Libre Pemee when the Commune was instituted. 

Johannard was one of the youngest, handsomest and most 
audacious of the Communal leaders. He was captured and immedi- 
ately shot. His age was 21. 

*The militarjr commanders of the four districts into which Paris had been 
divided— Generals Ladmirault, Cissey, Douai and Vinoy— each held continu- 
ous Court Martials and the prisoners were now, by their decree, mown down 

in rows by mitrailleuses. 

Marshal McMahon issued the following proclamation on Sunday : 

Republiqub Francaise. 
Inhabitants of Paris: 

"The Army of France is come to save you. Paris is freed. At 4 
o'clock our soldiers carried the last positions occupied by the insurgents. 
To-day the struggle ended; order, labor and security begin anew. 
The Marshal of France 

Commander-in-Chief 
— McMahon, 

Hdqtrs., 28 May, 1871. Duke of Magenta. 



THE LAST DAYS OF MAY. 1 89 

Tuesday-Wednesday, May 30-31 — " Order 
reigned in Paris. Smoking ruins, corpses, 
and desolation were all that met the eye. 
One side of the Seine ran red with blood. The 
glitters ran blood. The roads were red with blood, 
as though the soil had been London clay. Clouds 
of flesh-flies rose from the heaps of corpses; flocks 
of crows hovered over the charnel house. Paris 
now subjugated, the assassins could organize the 
slaughter at their leisure. It has been proved 
that these massacres were arranged at Versailles 
before the entry of the troops, and indeed, the 
utterances of Thiers were of themselves quite 
sufficient to show this."* 

" The number of dead bodies created a horribly 
foul atmosphere, from which the worst results in 
the way of epidemic diseases were feared. The 
gutters ran blood; blood flowed in a separate stream 
along the waters of the Seine; blood was thick 
upon the pavements and the roadways ; and the 
walls of houses were smeared with the same awful 
witness. This alone caused a dreadful corruption 
of the air; and the clouds of smoke overhanging 
the dolorous city prevented the still more ofl"ensive 
odor below from passing away. Many of the 
slaughtered insurgents were at once thrown into 
deep graves; but others lay about for a con- 
siderable time, and the general neglect of sanitary 
precautions threatened the most serious con- 
sequences. Moreover, the burial of persons who 
had died natural deaths was prevented for several 
days, owing to the state of the town; and at length 
the dead bodies were collected in carts, as in 
seasons of plague, and hastily interred."! 

Dozens beaten to death in the streets, thous- 
ands killed in battle, thousands shot in lines 

*Bftx. tCassell. 



1 90 'THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

against the walls, thousands slaughtered in droves 
by machine-guns, scores buried alive* — the living 
and the dead, the innocent and the guilty, the 
aged and the youthful — men, women, children 
— all mingled to fill the measure of revenge against 
the spirit of the social war." f 

Fugitives from their conquerors, fugitives 
from law, fugitives from society, the scattered 
survivors of this week of bloody revolt lay hidden 
in city or country, or furtive and sleepless, strove 
to reach the borders of some less hostile country 
than their own. No disguise was too absurd to 
serve their purpose. J The homes of the dead be- 
neath the city were the dwelling places of many, 
and the hunt for victims was systematic, energetic 
and pitiless. Parties of infantry traversed the 
alleys and explored the cellars in the city, cavalry 
patroled the environs, and agents of the Assembly, 
stationed in the departments of the nation, were 
vigorous, when opportunity offered, in capturing 
and forwarding fugitives to Versailles. All who 
had fought for, all who had assisted, all who had 
sympathized with the Commune were brought to 
gaol by the drag-net searches of the Versaillese. 
Nor were even these indications of 'crime' nec- 

* The horrible charge of burying the wounded alive, together with the 
dead, is supported by a relation to the same effect made in the Indepen- 
dance Beige, a paper strongly opposed to the Commune. 

t " To find a parallel for the conduct of Thiers and his bloodhounds, we 
must go back to the times of Sulla and the two Triumvirates of Rome. The 
same wholesale slaughter in cold blood; the same disregard, in massacre, of 
age and sex; the same system of torturing prisoners; the same proscriptions, 
but this time of a whole class; the same savage hunt after concealed leaders, 
lest one might escape; the same denunciations of political and private 
enemies; the same indifference for the butchery of entire strangers to the 
feud. There is but this difference, that the Romans had no mitrailleuses for 
the despatch, in the lump, of the proscribed, and that they had not " the law 
in their hands," nor on their lips the cry of civilization. "—A ddress Int. W. A . 
•) X Reports had been circulated of Grousset's being seen in Belgium and of 
his arrival in London, these being intended to mislead the Versaillese, On~ 
June 3d he was apprehended, dressed as a woman, in apartments where be 
had gone under the name of Miss Hacard. 



the: last days of .^iav. 191 

essary to insure seizure. The unmistakable marks 
which labor puts upon the laborer — the garb, the 
stoop, the expression — these were offenses not 
overlooked. To reside in the workingmen's quar- 
ter of the city, an exclamation of horror at the 
sight of murder — these were sufficiently flagitious 
to bring deportation or death. 

The press of Paris was, in almost every in- 
stance, in full symapthy with the massacres of 
prisoners and the general proceedings of the 
Assembly. The hidependance Frajicaise s^xot^: "At 
last Paris is freed from this gang of bandits, assas- 
sins, thieves and incendiaries. Our invincible and 
unvanquished soldiers have returned, bringing 
with them order and security in the folds of the 
glorious tri-color. Only one cry can proceed from 
our lips and that cry will be uttered by all French- 
men. ' No pity for these wretches. One punish- 
ment alone can expiate their crime — Death.'" 
The Pa7ds Journal said: " If the Commune was 
without right, we shall be without pity." 

*' The effluvium at lya Roquette was terrific; 
and, to prevent infection, numerous bodies were 
partially burned with petroleum, and buried in the 
Champ de Mars, under the pavements of the 
streets and in the public gardens. At Belleville, 
a cafe chantant had been turned into an ambulance, 
and dead bodies lay about on the tawdrily-be- 
dizened stage, and in the little drinking arbors in 
front. The condition of the Pere-Ivachaise was 
particularly horrible. As late as the 31st of May, 
the dead lay about on the grass in a double tier, 
powdered over with a coating of chloride of lime; 
and, as many of the tombstones and graves had 
been broken and torn up in the fighting, the de- 
composing remains of bodies that had long been 
buried were exposed to view, and added to the 



192 THE PARIS COMMUMK. 

frightful condition of the air. Smoke yet arose 
in heavy volumes from the chief centers of 
conflagration. *'* 

"The prisoners at Satory were evidently much 
depressed in spirit. They would hardly answer 
any questions put to them, and many lay wearily 
on their fetid straw, or on the damp, filthy earth, 
heeding no one, and indifferent to all things. 
Holes were made in the walls of the enclosure, 
and cannon, loaded with grape and canister, were 
stationed at the apertures. One night, a prisoner 
persisted in looking through an embrasure thus 
guarded. The sentry three times warned him to 
withdraw, and then blew his brains out. The 
slightest sign of insubordination was at once 
punished with death; and this rigor was doubt- 
less unavoidable. On the 24th of May, about a 
thousand of the captured insurgents revolted, got 
rid of their handcuffs, and attempted to set fire to 
the arsenal. In the confusion, fifty-seven escaped. 
Extra troops, however, were summoned from Ver- 
sailles; the soldiers fired into the crowd, and three 
hundred of the rebels were shot." 

Arrests were made of the people en masse in 
the workingraens' districts where the last stands 
were made. Apprehension of Federates, domicilary 
searches and other lawful proceedings were now 
in order, nor did they cease for nearly a year after 
the Commune's fall. The streets presented a fearful 
and revolting sight. Dead bodies of Communists, 
stagnant pools of human blood and the debris of 
the fires covered the principal thoroughfares. 
The Federates' dead were, after a delay whieli 
made the air reek with unhealth}^ odors, dimiped, 

* Fire engines and apparatus were forwarded from Brussels and other 
pities, and a tender of assistance was sent from London, 



THK LAST DAYS OF MAY. 1 93 

b}^ wagon loads, into any vacant place capable of 
holding them and usually covered but slightly 
with earth. The street pavements had been torn 
up to build barricades, many of which still re- 
mained. The houses were discolored by smoke 
and disfigured by fire and the bombardment 
during the hostilities. 

In the open country the evil effects of war 
are less felt by the individual than in the circum- 
scribed limits of a great city, where every person 
is at least a spectator of the arena of destruction 
and murder. 

It was a mournful but instructive spectacle, 
the Paris of the last days of May. There was not 
an evidence of destruction but carried its lesson to 
the military commander, a meaning to the philoso- 
pher and a warning to the .^.over of justice and of 
peace. No modern stoic could gaze unmoved 
upon the commingled corpses of the old, the young, 
the warlike and the peaceful; no one whose mind 
was pleased with a consideration of the grand and 
beautiful, could contemplate, without mental 
anguish, the ruthless ruin of those noble and 
historic buildings; no person, unless imbued with 
more than savage instincts, could look upon the 
destruction of man and his works except in sorrow 
2nd regret. 



194 THIi PARIS COMMUNiC. 

VII. 
The Peace of June. 

"The peace that passeth all understanding."— floZ^^ Writ. 



After the peace treaty (during the negotiation 
of which Bismarck strongly advised the disarming 
of the National Guard) had been signed, the 
uprising of the Parisians put a new phase on the 
position of the Germans encamped about Paris. 

The idea of a people's government was as 
obnoxious to Bismarck as it was to Thiers. 
A natural agreement was therefore consum- 
mated between the Prussian conquerors and 
the Versaillese in regard to the Commune. This 
engagement was the firm foundation on which 
waited the Assembly's careful preparation for the 
siege. 

Von Moltke says the German army was ready 
at any time to crush the insurrection, but Thiers 
feared the desertion of troops if the Germans 
invaded Paris. Faced by the fighting force of 
150,000 Versaillese, and with 80,000 Germans 
under agreement to turn back all fugitives, the 
desperate position of the Federates in the last 
days may be clearly seen. 

Notwithstanding the excellent discipljJne of 
the German army, the Saxon army corpg^ls said to 
have acted indulgently toward fugitives. That 
some got through the German line there is ample 
proof. 

The Northern and Eastern forts were occupied 
by the Germans, but they yielded at all times to the 



THE PEACE OE JUNK. 195 

Versaillese such territory as the latter desired to 
carry out their plans. This action on the part of 
the Germans was of a very great advantage, es- 
pecially in the last days as it gave the Assembly's 
troops access to the city's gates on the North. It 
has been said that Prince Bismarck, actuated by 
his usual sentiments expressed a grim satis- 
faction at the temporary success of the Commune, 
because it would attract all the professed revolu- 
tionists of Europe to Paris, where they would be 
caught in a trap and exterminated.* 

Authorities seem to agree that the losses 
of the Versaillese troops in recapturing Paris 
amounted to 83 officers killed and 430 wounded; 
less than 1,000 private soldiers killed, but over 
6,000 wounded. The number of missing was in- 
significant, being less than 200. These figures 
seem astonishingly small considering the huge 
number in the aggregate killed on the side of the 
Federates, who fought, for the most part, protected 
behind fortifications. 

If there ever was any record of the number of 
prisoners taken, such record was destroyed by the 
Assembly's agents. The number is variously es- 
timated at from 30,000 to 60,000, and as the records 
of sentences and acquittals show but a small part 
of those captured, the abattoirs at Satory and 
Lobau, together with heaps of corpses which lined 
the walls inside the city, tell the tale of tens of 
thousands who were murdered — helpless, untried 
and unrecorded. 

A correspondent of the London Times re- 
ported the number of " Parisians killed in battle 
in the city at 6,000; the Versaillese shot 8,000 

^ *" No mediation is possible in the struggle that has shaken Europe to itB 
foundations. The principles involved rest on foundations which are utterly 
opposed to each other, and which exclude one another from the beginning." 
—Prince Bismarck. 



196 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

prisoners in cold blood; 80 were shot in one row at 
Pere-Iyachaise," An Advertiser correspondent re- 
ported that he saw "400 or 500 shot one morning. 
A batch of prisoners was brought up while I was 
speaking to the officer in charge. He quietly 
looked them over and ordered them shot. No 
accusation, no trial, simply cold-blooded murder." 
"At Versailles they were shut up in the 
wine cellars of the Palace, 45 feet underground. 
* * The prisoners had only some old straw 
on the floors. In this place, 600 men were con- 
fined, and the torture they endured from the close 
air, the filth and the impossibility of lying down at 
night was terrible. Those condemned to death 
w^ere shot at the Buttes Satory — an immense am- 
phitheatre holding 20,000 people." * 

An Englishman — who was pressed into the 
service of the Commune as carrier of messages on 
horseback — writing for McMillan's Magazine of 
September and October, 1871, said he " saw no 
petroleuses * * nor did he believe in their 
existence." ^ * Those who remained at the 
barricades to the last, and were the most obstinate 
in their defence w^ere the boys of Paris "^ * 
from 12 to 16 years old. I was fortunately cap- 
tured without arms. * Those put to death were 
mostly officers of the National Guard ^ * * 
They all, without exception, met their death 
bravely and like men. There was no shrinking 
from death or entreaties to be spared, by those I 
saw killed. The Marquis de Gallifet (he who 
had served the Emperor in Mexico) passed slowly 
down the line. He stopped here and there select- 
ing several of our number, chiefly the aged and 
wounded, and ordered them to step out from the 
ranks. His commands were usually couched in 



THE PKACK OF JUNE. I97 

abusive language. A young man near me said "I 
am an American. Here is my passport. I am 
innocent." "Silence! We have got foreigners 
and riff-raff more than enough. We got to get 
rid of them," was the general's reply. We thought 
the aged and wounded were to be spared and we 
expected to be shot at once. ^-^ * Those picked 
out of our ranks by General de Gallifet — over 80 
in number — were shot before our eyes.f We * 
proceeded * toward Versailles. There was no 
water. Some, utterly worn out, would drop by 
the wayside. Our guard * * by kicks and 
blows * * would try to make him resume his 
place in the line. When these measures proved 
unavailing, a shot in the rear would tell us one of 
our number had ceased to exist. The guard 
would fall into his place, laughing and chatting 
gayly with his comrades. Arrived at Satory, we 
fell on our faces in the mud and lapped the water 
from the pools. It was useless to attempt to find 
a place to sleep. I counted that night 44 men 
bereft of reason." 

The Versaillese Assembly celebrated with 
"Thanksgiving" services, the restoration of 
*' order." 

t A writer in the Times, describing the events of the 25th, spoke of the 
horrible effect produced bj' the angry ring of the volleys of execution, the 
strings of men and women hurried off to their doom, the' curses of the popu- 
lace, and the brutal violence of the soldiery. The civilians were fully 
as savage as the troops. Those, who but a few daj^s before cowered beneath 
the dictation of Pyat, Delescluze and their associates, and did not dare to 
lift a hand or utter a word in their own defence, now vied with each other in 
pointing out concealed Communists, and shouting for their immediate death. 
When files of prisoners were led through the streets, the crowd would fre- 
quently exclaim, "Shoot the wretches! Show them no mercy!" They 
struck them with canes, yelled at them, or laughed and made hideous joke's 
when one was shot down in cold blood. The soldiers and the people some- 
times coalesce, and literally beat the miserable wretches to death with 
sticks and the butt-ends of muskets—" beat them to death," as an observer 
related, "after the style in which cruel boys smash frogs and toads. "j^ An 
eminent advocate was shocked to see an officer draw his sword upon a 
woman who tried to leave a line of prisoners, slash her across the face, and 
hack off part of her shoulder. Another officer, of more humane disposition, 
was arrested for speaking against similar barbarity. 



198 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

Rossel was arrested on June ytli. " He denied 
that he was Rossel; was confused, broken-down 
and bewildered," says McMahon in his official re- 
port. The posthumous papers left by Rossel were 
written while he was hidden in the city, subse- 
quent to his disappearance with Gerardin. 

The obsequies of the Archbishop and other 
ecclesiastics killed in Paris by the Communal 
leaders, was held on June 7th. The aspect of the 
people on the streets did not show a very deep 
emotion. A solemn silence on the part of those 
who assisted in the ceremony, and an apathetic 
indifference in those who witnessed it were the 
characteristics of the occasion. The columns in 
the Cathedral of Notre Dame were draped in 
black and silver, and each column bore an 
embroidered escutcheon which contained the 
name of one of the deceased clerical hostages. f 

On the 29th of June, Thiers and McMahon re- 
viewed 80,000 French troops at lyongchamps, 
where four months before the victorious army of 
the Germans had been manoeuvred. McMahon 
was received with shouts of acclamation; the 

* The Assembly set aside 6,000 francs for the funeral of the Archbishop 
and those shot with him. Above the central door of the Cathedral of Paris 
a shield was placed bearing the "arms" of the Archbishop with the motto 
" Lahore fldeque." 

t"The Rev. F. Perraud, a priest of the Oratory discoursed on this 
subject in a funeral sermon on Monseignour Darboy, preached at Notre 
Dame on the 18th of July, before the Papal Nuncio and several French 
Bishops, 'We must take up our decision,' he remarked, ' between Jesus 
Christ and the Revolution ; between the Gospel, that sole foundation of 
social justice, and the lying systems which bring forth noting but ruin and 
desolation. It is time for us to make our ehoice between those who die and 
those who kill; between those who kill in the name of liberty, of universal 
fraternity, of civilization, of progress, and those ^Atlio die as victims, like 
Christ, and, like unto Christ, die loving, blessing, forgiving, unto their last 
gasp. Those scenes, so justly called ' an awful mystery\et iniquity,' are 
simply the logic of evil pushed to its extreme consequences. Here we have 
them before us in their horrid nakedness, those perverse doctrines which 
we did not fear as long as they were shrouded in a sober guise, as long as 
they were a measured and polite attack against God, against his Christ, 
against the Church, against the fundamental principles of morals and duty. 
This evil spirit hath shown himself in his whole hideous ugliness. God 
grant it may be for his eternal shame and his last condemnation." 



THE PEACE OF JUNE. 1 99 

soldiers were sullen and disgtisted-looking as they 
filed by; Thiers gave way to copious tears when 
the people cheered him. 

The Peace of June : 

•• The column of prisoners halted in the Avenue Uhrich, and was drawn 
up, four or five deep, on the footway facing to the road. General Marquis de 
Gallifet and his staff dismounted and commenced an inspection from the 
left of the line. Walking down slowly and eyeing the ranks, the Geneva) 
stopped here and there tapping a man on the shoulder or 
beckoning him out of the rear ranks. In most cases, without further parley, 
the individual thus selected was marched out into the centre of the road, 
where a small supplementary column was thus soon formed. . . . . It 
was evident that there was considerable room for error. A mounted officer 
pointed out to General Gallifet a man and woman for some particular 
offence. The woman, rushing out of the ranks, threw herself on her knees 
and, with outstretched arms, protested her innocence in passiona^^e terms. 
The general waited for a pause, and then with most impassable face and un- 
moved demeanor, said, ' Madame, I have visited every theatre in Paris, 
your acting will have no effect on me ' (ce n'est pas la peine de jouer la 
comedie )..... It was not a good thing on that day to be noticeably 
taller, dirtier, cleaner, older, or uglier than one's neighbors. One individual 
in particular struck me as probably owing his speedy release from the ills of 
this world to his having a broken nose, .... Over a hundred being 
thus chosen, a firing party told ofif, and the column resumed its march, leav- 
ing them behind. A few minutes afterwards a dropping fire in our rear 
commenced, and continued for over a quarter of an hour. It was the execu- 
tion of these summarily-convicted wretches."— Pans Correspondent "Daily 
News," June 8th. 

" The Temps, which is a careful journal, and not given to sensation, tells a 
dreadful story of people imperfectly shot and buried before life was extinct. 
A great number were buried in the Square round St. Jacques-la-Bouchiere; 
some of them very superficially. In the daytime the roar of the busy streets 
prevented any notice being taken; bvit in the stillness of the night the in- 
habitants of the houses in the neighborhood were roused by distant moans, 
and in the jmorning a clenched hand was seen protruding through the soil. 
In consequence of this, exhumations were ordered to take place. . . ' . 
That many wounded have been buried alive I have not the slightest doubt. 
One case I can vouch for. When Brunei was shot with his mistress on the 
24th ult. in the courtyard of a house in the Place Vendome: the bodies lay 
there until the afternoon of the 27th. When the burial party came to re- 
move the corpses, they found* the woman living still, and took her to an am- 
bvilance. Though she had received four bullets she is now out of danger."— 
Paris Correspondent " Eveninj LMandard:' June 8th. 



200 THK PAKIS COMMUNE 

VIII. 

The Commune's Administration. 



" The Commune is the foundation of all political states, as the family is 

the embryo of human society. 
" It implies, as a political form, the republic, which is alone compatible 

with liberty and popular sovereignty. 
" The most complete liberty to speak, to write, to meet, and to associate. 
'• Respect for the individual, and the inviolability of opinion. 
•' The sovereignty of universal suffrage— being for ever its own master, 

and constantly able to convoke and to manifest itself. 
"The electoral principle for every functionary and magistrate. 
" The responsibility of mandatories, and consequently their permanent 

revocability. 
•' The suppression of the standing army, so dangerous to liberty, and so 

burdensome to social economy. 
'• Suppression of subsidies to creeds, theatres and the press. 
" Organization of a Communal assurance system, against all social risks 

crises, und failnres.— Epitome of the Declaration of Principles. 

If we consider the issues involved, the forces 
at work and the circumstances surrounding the 
uprising of 1871, it becomes evident that the 
triumph of the revolution was an impossibility. 
A disastrous outcome was inevitable. 

The first sessions of the Commune were 
amicable and intelligent. But as soon as the 
discussioni of war measures came on, the body was 
no longer; the homogeneous representation of a 
united people, but became ^-discordant and factious 
assembly, vainly attemptihg:. to represent a 
brave but discontented and suspicious constitu- 
ency. From that time acrimony and personality 
pervaded its deliberations. 

There was a tone of moderation, of concilia- 
tion toward their opponents,seemingly quite out of 
place in a body of men who, in reality, represented 



TfiE commune's administration. 20I 

a spirit of social revolution. It is evident that 
they did not to comprehend the necessities of the 
situation. The wisdom of experience should have 
told them that success was only possible by the 
victories of war. They forgot that " war legis- 
lates." * They seemed to eschew the lessons spread 
on the pages of history, all of which teach that to 
retain power it must be used. Engaged in a war 
with a rich, unscrupulous and implacable foe, they 
shifted about seeking for compromise in a struggle 
''where no mediation was possible, "and neglected 
to grasp and use the mine of wealth in the vaults 
of the Bank of France. So perverse and puerile 
was their conception of war ,that while the enemy 
was murdering their soldiers when made prisoners, 
the Commune found no more important work than 
turbulent bickering regarding the form which the 
executive power should take. 

The internal dissensions and the nature of the 
discussions showed the Commune to be composed 
of men " imbued with the love of freedom but not 
possessed of the spirit of union;" agreed as to the 
end, but jealously disagreeing as to the means to 
be used. Unfortunately for the record of their 
wisdom, they vainly attempted to legislate much 
for the benefit of the city's inhabitants before 
they gained, by the success of arms, the powers 
of government. "Indeed one of the common 
and distinctive features of the Paris Commune 
was this, that each of its members was severally 
accessible to political conceptions and ideas of 
organization; but as a body it remained deaf to 
such ideas — a moon-struck assemblage of men 
individually sane."t I'lie exigencies of immediate 
decision and action magnified, in those independent 
and polemical minds, the differences in opinion; 

* William GrjesbeLk. t J. Andrieu. 



202 THK PARIS commune:. 

As orators they were superb; as writers, ex- 
cellent; as legislators, honorable; in the conduct 
of war, the most fatuous body the world has ever 
seen. The courageous defenders of the fortifica- 
tions were supplied without judgment, munitioned 
by chance and officered by gold lace and cries of 
"Vive la Republique," "Vive la Commune." 
" Delegates, Commanders of Legions and Battal- 
ions, the most betasselled and bestriped staff* ever 
seen." 

The Commune was obliged to adopt the form of 
government and procedure adapted only to a social 
order organized under the beliefs diametrically 
opposed to the principles and policy by which 
it was necessary to put in action the Commune's 
intentions. This adoption was the result of 
fear of the social sentiment of the civilization of 
thedayand the dread of the army of the victorious 
Germans outside the city's walls, which stood 
ready to pounce upon and destroy them should 
they be successful in patting in operation even 
the slight infringements upon the property arrange- 
ments which they had thus been constrained to 
sanction. 

The uniformly hostile position of the Com- 
mune toward the clergy has made the former 
the target for much invective. The Com- 
mune of Paris simply found the ecclesiastics their 
enemies and treated them as such. The clergy 
made it known at alFti^es by act and word that 
they were foes of the Commune and of the 
Communal doctrines. Guizot declares that 

"when any step was taken to establish per- 
manent institutions which might effectually 
protect liberty from the invasions of power in 
general; the church has always ranged herself on 
hi side of despotisni." Whether this be true or 



THE commune's administration. 203 

not, the priesthood had, to some extent, restrained 
the excesses of a barbarous age and protected the 
weak in society. But, as the French people ad- 
vanced in civilization, the ecclesiastics acted not 
as mediators between classes, but as a repressive 
factor on the intellectual and social progress of the 
people. The Communal authorities were keen in 
their appreciation of the inconsistent position of the 
clergy, who, while teaching abhorrence of pride and 
the hatred of riches, expected the utmost subservi- 
ency from others, the surrender of wealth to the 
churches and the use of luxuries to themselves.* 

It is not sufficient to deduce this hatred for 
the priests and established religion from the mere 
dislike for religion per se. The actions of the 
leaders and supporters of the Commune indicate 
not only a denial of the very elements of belief, but 
show their absolute conviction that the church 
was intimately bound up in the system they desired 
to destroy, and could not be made to coalesce in 
the new order they desired to establish .f 

What was the conditign of Paris under the 
Commune? Even in those portions of Paris 
where crime is common, where virtue is the rare 
exception, where infancy is that knows no inno- 

*M. Regnard, a man of ability and discretion, while secretary to M. 
Cournet, in an interview, mentioned the fact that " the ecclesiastics were in 
constant communication with the Assembly's agents; the priests had se- 
creted in the churches many arms which had fallen into their hands during 
the Franco-German War." The discovery of these arms in several religious 
iiistitutions, was sufficient reason for searches of all church property, and the 
necessity of apprehending all known to be actively assisting the Assembly 
made imperative the arrest of priests. 

t " It is urged further that Communism and Socialism would destroy 
religion and the family institution. The reason of this complaint is evident 
enoush. A number of social reformers have been at the same time atheists 
and advocates of free love. The questions of atheism and free love are, 
however, totally different from that of even Communism, the most radical of 
all the reforms proposed. There is no necessary connection whatever be- 
tween them. ~ If it could once be shown that Communism were practicable, it 
woTild'be easy to give many reasons for supposing that ip such a society the 
. iQve b^tVecn man and wife and parents and children would be freer from 
selfish and sordid motives than at present.— i?ic/i«rd r. JSZ?/. 



204 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

cence, youth without shame, maturity that is ma- 
ture in nothing but suffering and guilt, blasted old 
age that is a scandal to the name we bear" — even 
these pestilential centers of iniquity failed to 
return their record of assaults, robberies, burg- 
laries, suicides and murders. It is conceded by 
all writers that while under the rule of the Com- 
mune, there was not a section of the city but that 
could be traversed with safety at any hour of the 
day or night. Has there been such a condition of 
affairs in Paris under royalty, under Empire or 
under the rule for profit by the bourgeoise ? 

Dr. Bridges, writing to the Bee Hive, July 8th, 1871, said:— " I delib- 
erately say that the records of history may be searched in vain to find a 
revolutionary movement, the leaders of which stand out in history more 
pure from crime than the leaders of the Commune." 

^ • An English lady, who left Paris on the advent of the Commune, returned 
after the city's subjugation by the Versaillese. She found that her apart- 
ments had been vised for a military headquarters by the Federates. Of her 
three rooms, two were occupied by soldiery; all her furniture and belong- 
ings had been stored in the third room, and not an article was missing, 
pieces. of jewelry which had been left on the bureau remaining as she had 
even left them. -^ 

Mr. Read, then in Paris, writing from Lalywood Road, Birmingham, to 
the Morning News, July 17th, proves the Commune never had the least in- 
tention of shooting the hostages. Mr. Read also proved that the hostages 
were not shot till' three days after the Versaillese troops were masters of 
Paris, and the members of the Commune killed or inflight. That during 
the reign of the Commune not one person was put to death officially or 
otherwise, and that Mr. Malet, of the British Embassy, could prove the 
same. Mr. Malet also declared that during the Commune there was an 
almost total absence of crime. 

An English clergjaxian, living in Paris at the time, wrote to the Specta- 
tor, May 20th, 1871, on the state of Paris. He said:— "As to anarchy, never 
was Paris so quiet and orderly; never were persons or property so safe; you 
' may go out at-afty-hour, in any quarter, without fear or insult; and this is 
more; than could be sajdof the place, ,when, besides the city police and the 

• army of spies, it had tivelve thousand police specially for the Emperor's pro- 
tection. . ' . .' Of, personal liberty you can go where you please. Of 

• drunkenness you see none in Paris. As to debauchery, the women have 
joihed'the Commune to put down prostitution." 

. No more corpses at the- Morgue, no nocturnal burglaries, scarcely any 
robberies; in fact, for the first time since the days of February, 1848, the 

• streets of Paris were safe, and that without any police of any kind. " We," 
• said am-ember of the Commune, "hear no longer of assassination, theft, and 

personal assault; it seems, indeed.. as if the. police had dragged along. with it 
- to -Versailfes all its Conservative friends." — Address: of Int. W. A. 

-- -A CathVlie woman, yisiting Paris, met another woman returning from 
■ the flowers-market carrying a bouquet. " Then no- one," said tfie visitor, 
pointing to the flowers,\"need be afraid in Paris." " No woman," was the 
answer, " except of shells; but the-.men are in^danger."— iatMrter. 



THE commune's administration. 205 

'' I was constantly about the city during- the whole reign of the Com- 
mune, but I was never interfered with nor was ever an affront offered to my 
person. My private seeretarj' * * * ^vas busy everj^where * * * ' 
Going throug-h the prisons, etc. * * he was always treated with the ut- 
most respect." — Washburne. 

The work of the administration in the 
municipality was divided into nine departments, 
(see p. 74) and these were, all things considered, 
creditably conducted, except that most important 
of them all, the Department of War. 

The War Department has been fully reyiewed in the preceding chapters. 
Its delegates were successively LuUier, swaggerer; Cluseret, diplomat; 
Rossel, insincere, and Delescluze, enthusiast. 

Cluseret must be credited with much wisdom on one point. He was not 
in favor of the centering of internal efforts on the locking up of the priests, 
while the Bank of France— the hostage of hostages— was left practicallj' in 
the hands of their antagonists. 

LuUier contemplated leaving Paris about the middle of May, 
and he applied to Minister Washburne to get him a passport. He 
was about 83 years of age. He was a forcible and fearless speaker, 
and his public denunciations of the incapacity of the Commune's 
military leaders made him unpopular with the Commune, and with 
its officials. LuUier took command of the flotilla of the 

Seine April 12th. It is charged that late in April LuUier desired 
the Assembly to secretly authorize him to organize a counter- 
revolution in Paris in favor of the Versaillese government, 

"Delescluze and the majority of the Commune understood nothing, 
and therefore accomplished nothing.''''— Cluseret. 

Beslay. Jourde and Varlin were the Com-nittee on Finance. 

A legal battalion of five hundred National Guards, who were favorable to, 
the Assembly, were, from the opening of the difficulty, in charge of and en- 
trenched in the bank. It is said they had but twenty-five rounds of ammu- 
nition, but their strong position and the diplomatic stubborness of the bank 
authorities, together with the ignorance of the Federates as to the lack of 
munitions were sufficient to deter the Communal authorities from taking 
over the institution. The bank officials also insisted that the moment the 
Commune took charge, the bank's notes would be practically valueless. The 
excuses, the lies, the deceptions, the bickerings which served to protect the 
bank and embarrass the Commune would of themselves fill a long and not 
uninteresting chapter. 

Six hundred millions of dollars, in various forms of value, were in the 
bank's vaults at this time, of which there was 8,826,866 francs to the credit of 
the City of Paris, and 1,390,000 francs were to the credit of the International 
Workingmen's Association. The latter fund was used by the Commune. 
Including this, the "total amount paid out by the Bank'of France on the 
Commune's account was 7,200,000 francs [^1,4A0,000]. — Washburne. 

Beslay was made the Commune's agent in the bank and he was in- 
stalled in an office in that institution. Rouland, the governor, left on March 
18th. The sub-governor, Marquis de Ploeuz, was in charge during the Com- 
mune, and testified before Commissioner of Inquest that without Besley the 
bank "would no longer exist." The bank continually protested against 
issuing funds and its excuses and evasions were directed from Versailles. 
The funds were parceled out in amounts insufficient to make a 
vigorous defense, but sufficient to satisfy the committee and to keep in 
abeyance the desire to take over the bank. This was several times 



206 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

threatened, and constantly advocated by all who had any adequate con- 
ception of the power of money in war. Besley's actions in endeavoring 
to lessen the demands on the bank are evidence that he deserved no punish- 
ment at the hands of the Versaillese. Thiers is said to have granted 
Besley a pass to Switzerland after the fall of the Commune. 

Jourde presided over the Commission of Finance, and with the assistance 
of Varlin, attended to the collection of funds and the payment of troops, 
etc. There was an evident desire, on the part of the Commune, to connect 
authority with merit in these appointments. Jourde, who had been a clerk 
and accountant, was honest and methodical. This department was carried 
on by men drawn from among the proletarians, at ordinary wages, and strict 
accounting was made of every item, although huge sums were in transfer, 
and the opportunities for irregularities were plentiful. Jourde made fre- 
quent accountings to the Commune. In all the vast sums handled by the 
Commission of Finance, the disposition of every sou was shown in the records. 
Jourde frequently objected to what he believed to be the too-liberal use of 
the public moneys in some departments. These two who were chosen, 
Varlin and Jourde. were both distinguished for their plain and simple apparel 
and fare, and for their orderly and abstemious habits of life. Jourde twice 
resigned as head of the Finance Department owing to his dissatisfaction with 
some actions of the Commune; the completeness of his reports, and his 
unquestioned integrity, caused a unanimous demand for his continuance i n 
office. 

Jourde protested vigorously against the payments made to the National 
Guard in the latter part of the struggle. He had 60,000 men on his pay roll 
and said he did not believe more than 30,000 were performing their duties. 

The red flag was never hoisted over the Bank of France. 

Beslay was an engineer by profession, He had been a deputy in 
1830; his father had been a deputy under the first Empire. 

" Jourde, a small, pale, thin man and a consumptive, thoroughly 
trustworthy— nothing more He defended the bank more than anyone 
—at any rate as much as Beslay."— C^wserei. 

The Department of Subsistence was one which was easily and well 
managed. 

" Vlard was an honest, straightforward man, incapable of a base 
act."' — Cluseiet, 

Elisee Reelus and Benoit Gastneau were placed in charge of the National 
Library. 

Elisee Reelus was born at Sanita-Foy-la-Grandeandwas 41 years 
of age in 1871. He is a distinguished geographer and scientist and 
the author of many notable works on physical geography. His prin- 
ciple books are " La Terre " and the " Geographle Universelle." He 
has also written many pamphlets on Anarchism and is accounted as 
one of the leaders of Anarchist thought in Europe. He was tried for 
participation in the Commune and condemned to transportation for 
life, but, by the intercession of scientific men, the government was 
induced to commute this sentence to banishment. 

The Delegate of Labor took charge of the unemploj-ed;night work by 
bakers was abolished, all employers were forbidden to fine their laborers 
under any circumstances. 

" The prohibition, under penalty, of the employers' practice to 
reduce wages by levying upon their workpeople fines under manifold 
pretexts— a process in which the employer combines in his own 
person the parts of legislator, judge, and executioner, and filches the money 
to hoot."— Address of Int. W. A. 

By decree all workshops not in actual operation were confiscated to the 
Commune to be operated co-operatively by trades-syndicates of workmen, 
" thus affirming the principle of the expropriation of the capitalist class by 
the working class. " 



THE COMMUNK'S ADMINI.STRATION. 207 

" The farce was to be gone through of ha\'ing a jury of arbitration to fix 
upon the amount of indenlnitj-.— Such owners were not, of course, repre- 
sented on the jury and had no voice whatever in the matter."— Washburthe. 

"The department of labor immediately set to work to systematically 
collect and arrange information regarding the condition of labor, and relations 
between employers and employed. " It was also entrusted with the revision 
of the customs and the transformation of the fiscal system, "—fiax. 

" Frankel, small, thin, fair; with a subtle and methodical mind 
* * * thoroughly acquainted with the questions relative to 
la,\ior. "—Cluseret. 

Foreign Affairs, with Grousset as Delegate, were carefully attended. It 
was evidently the intention of the Commune to placate the Germans as 
Paschal Grousset on April 20th, in the Affranche, declared Paris was ready 
to pay a just share of the indemnity to the Prussians. 

Department of .Justice, Protot, Delegate, was creditably conducted. 

The judicial functionaries were to be divested of that sham independence 
which had but serveci to mask their abject subserviency to all succeeding 
governments to which, in turn, they had taken, and broken, the oaths of 
allegiance. Like the rest of public servants, magistrates and judges were to 
be elective, responsible, and vevocahle .—Address Int. W. A. 

Protot was 36 years of age. An enthusiast; intelligent and 
brave; his jaw was broken by a bullet while he was defending a 
barricade during the street fighting. 

The Public Service was, all things considered, attended to in a remark- 
able efficient manner. 

Thiesz, a silver chaser by trade, was selected to take charge of the postal 
service. This absolutelv necessary public utility had been purposely de- 
moralized by Rampon, the deserting head of this department under instruc- 
tion from Thiers, but under the hand of the Commune's delegate, order was 
restored and the service, it has been held by all historians, would have been 
creditable to a city in the midst of a prosperous peace instead of one in a 
state of siege and disorder. 

"Rampon appears to have taken advantage of the Committee's confi- 
dence, and to have sent away to Versailles all the conveyances and boxes 
used bv the administration. The Communal Council, receiving warning too 
late, onlv issued orders * * for the arrest of M. -Rampon; but when 
the agents of the Commune reached the Post Office for that purpose, they 
found neither M. Rampon nor his clerks, neither registers nor postal eases, 
" not even the Post Office vans", was the report of the Commune's re- 
presentatives." 

The wages of the employes in the post office were ra'sed, the hours 
shortened and all arrangements showed marked diligence and great ability. 

Camelinet, a bronze worker, was given charge of the mint and in spite o* 
the singular difficulties wdiich surrounded its operation, the conduct o^ 
this department was of such a character as to call for high praise. 

Treilhard, an old revolutionist, was put in charge of hospitals, and did 
systematic work for the attendance of the sick and wounded. 

Gustave Courbet, the painter, and a committee of artists superintended 
the museums and picture galleries. 

"Gustave Courbet, artist, was born in 1819 in the province of 
Franche-Comte, wMcli lies on the eastern limits of France. His 
father was a well-to-do farmer, who had a cousin in Paris who was a 
lawyer. At 20, yuung Courbet was sent to Paris to study law with 
this relative. He abandoned himself to art. He painted his 
own portrait and for several succeeding years sent it to the Salon 



2o8 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

and each time it was sent it was refused. In two of his pictures 
"The Lovers in the Country" and. "The Man with the Leather Girdle" 
his portrait is introduced. His first picture that attracted attention 
was in 1844. His fame began to grow In 1850, Courbet " awoke and 
found himself famous." After the suppression of the Commune in 
Paris, Courbet was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and to 
pay the cost of restoring the Column Vendome. The heavy cost was 
paid in part and on Courbet's death his devoted sister, who had the 
Gallic dread of pecuniary dishonor in her family, assumed the remain- 
ing debt; that, however was cancelled by the Government."— ri^ws 
Munson Coan. 

, ( Courbet's fine is generally stated to have been but 500 francs.) 

The Department of Education was unable, owing to the unsettled condi- 
tion of affairs to form any general system of procedure, but in the arrondes- 
sements, considerable local work was done. In one district the clothing and 
feeding of children was instituted. Another declared its mission as a com- 
munal institution to teach children to love their fellow creatures, to love 
justice and to bring home to them the duty of improving themselves, not 
for the salce of personal advancement, " but "in the interests of all." At the 
same time teachers were instructed in future to exclusively employ " the ex- 
perimental and scientific method, that which starts from faces, physical, 
moral and intellectusl." 

Public Safety had as Delegates Rigault, Cournet and Ferre. The 
duties were in all cases diligently performed, unpleasant and arbitrai-y as 
thBj^ sometimes appeared. 

Soon after his appointment as Prosecutor, Rigault issued an order that 
no persons, military or civil, should be imprisoned vinless an official report, 
detailing the alleged offences and with the names and addresses of witnesses, 
were lodged at the clerks office by the citizens making the arrest. 

Raoul Rigault said on the 17th of May, " I would sooner let the gviilty 
escape than strike an innocent person." 

Riel and Leballeur, assistants at the Prefecture, were imprisoned for 
being too extravagant with public moneys. 

Cournet, who was editor of the i?ew?7, had been a deputy to the 
Assembly, but resigned to uphold the Communal cause, and was well 
known as a forcible writer and an unflinching advocate of the Com- 
munal tenets. 

Ferre had been a clerk before the breaking qut of the war, and 
was a well known speaker and an active revolutionary agitator. He 
Is described as a small, brisk man, with an immense capacity for 
disposing of business. Of an active mind, a ready tongue and a 
firm will. 

Ferre, when tried, refused to answer interrogations, made no 
defence and refused to have an advocate. He was aS years of age. 

Gaston Pierre Dacosta, a journalist, was assistant procurator 
under Rigault, and seems to have had a character similar to that of 
his chief. Dacosta was but 22 years of age, but at 18 was sentenced 
to 15 days' imprisonment for uttering seditious cries. 

Pilotell, an artist, was one of Rigault's most vigorous lieutenants, 
and has been singled out much villification for carrying out the 
orders of the head of the department. 

Abbe Lamazou speaks of Rigault and Ferre as the two most depraved 
and bloodthirsty members of the Commune. 

The following are among the more important decrees of the Commune, 
some not before noted : 

April 2, The Commune declared that sinecures and overpay had no 
place in a genuine Republic, and that no official of the Commune 
should receive over |1200 per annum. 



THK COMMUNK S ADMINISTRATION. 209 

April 27, The Commune decreed the destruction of the Chapel Brea, 
erected in memory of General Brea, who was killed bj' a revolutionist in the 
uprisina: of 1848. 

A proclamation was issued April 29, outlining their policy, and another 
in which they remitted three-quarters ef rents, due October, 1870, January, 
1871, and April, 1871, and all payments made previous to this decree were to 
be deducted from future payments; this applied to furnished apartments as 
well as houses. All leases were renewable at the option of the tenant; all 
notices to quit might be deferred three months at the pleasure of the tenant. 

May 12, The Commune decreed a gratuitious delivery of all pledges in 
pawnshops, of a value less than twenty francs [$4]. 

May 17, Decreed titles, coats of arms, liveries and aristocratic 
privileges abolished; all pensions, revenues and emoluments thereto are 
abolished and the Legion of Honor and all other Orders abolished. 

May 19, Public functionaries, guilty of extortion, depredation or thefts 
as long as war lasts, shall be tried by Court Martial. 

A decree for arresting all drunkards and prostitutes, and another 
punishing theft with death was promulgated by the Commune. 

The widow of every National Guard was to have of 600 francs a year; 
the mistresses of National Guards to be placed on the same basis; each child, 
legitimate or illegitimate, was to have one franc per day until 18 years of 
age. Provisions were made for pensioning the aged and wounded defenders 
of the Commune. 

A court was established for the trial of all military offenders in the ranks 
of the Federates, and was specially intended to consider the cases of those 
against whom charges of spying for the Versaillese were brought. 

The theatres were to be put under the administration of associations 
instead of individuals. 

The Cummune fed the families of those who fought against it and simply 
said " The Commune has enough bread for all." Thus putting into action 
what is known as Christian charity so noticeable absent from Christian 
warfare. 

It was held by the Commune, as may be seen by their edicts, that the 
ecclesiastics had not only taken over to the church, and to their own use, the 
temporal possessions of the community, but had sjstematicallv pauperized 
the mentality of those who were brought under their influence. 

M. Mortier, member of the Commune, expressed a desire to open the 
churches only for atheistic teachings and the annihilating of ancient super- 
stitions. 

"Having once got rid of the standing army and the police, the physical 
force elements of the old government, the Commune was anxious to break 
the spiritual force of repression, the " par son -power," by the disestablish- 
ment and disendowment of all churches as proprietary bodies. The priests 
were sent back to the recesses of private life, there to feed upon the alms of 
the faithful in imitation of their predecessors, the Apostles. The whole of 
the educational institutions were opened to the people gratuitously, and at 
the same time cleared of all interference of Church and State. Thus, not 
only was education made accessible to all, but science itself freed from the 
fetters which class prejudice and governmental force had imposed upon it." 

Notwithstanding the military failures of the 
Communal government, the splendid administra- 
tion of municipal affairs by workingmen, with a 
machinery purposely disarranged by the former 
officials, proves this class to possess the faculty of 
social iniative in a high degree and conclusively 
disproves the charge that this was a rebellion of 



2IO THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

the incompetents^ — the socially unfit — who were 
bent upon escaping from needed restraints and in- 
augurating an orgy of pillage, lust and blood. 

The workman of Paris * * had admirable qualities. * * He is 
active, generous, unwearied in work and in pleasure, he is ardent, courageous 
naturally-inclined to all that is grand and lofty, with a passion for justice, 
sober (in spite of all that his calumniaters may have said on the progress of 
drunkenness, we keep this word, which is justified by the Paris workman's 
faculty of living on next to nothing) generally obliging, cordial and gay— and 
gaiety is a noble gift in a being who has every thing to suffer. "^^. 
DesmouUns. 

It is a strange fact. In spite of all the tall talk and all the immense 
literature, for the last sixty years, about Emancipation of Labor, no sooner 
do the working men anywhere take the subject into their own hands with 
a will, than uprises at once all the apologetic phraseolgy of the mouthpieces 
of present society with its two poles of Capital and Wage-slavery (the land- 
lord now is but the sleeping partner of the capitalist), as if capitalist society 
was still in its purest state of virgin innocence, with its antiagonisms still 
undeveloped, with its delusions still unexploded, with its prostitute realities 
not yet laid bare. The Commune, they exclaim, intends to abolish property, 
the basis of all civilization ! Yes, gentlemen, the Commune intended to 
abolish that class-property which makes the labor of the many the wealth 
of the few. It aimed at the expropriation of the expropriators. It wanted 
to make individual property a truth by transforming the means of produc- 
tion, land and capital, now chiefly the means of enslaving and exploiting 
labor, into mere instruments of free and associated Is^hov .—Address of 
Int. W. A. 

It must be remembered that the administration'of Paris under the Com- 
mune was extremely economical; so much so as to cause the surprise and 
disgust of the ex-officials and ex-attaches of the municipality, who in the 
main acknowledged that Paris in war under the Commune cost less than 
Paris in peace under the Empire, notwithstanding all insinuations of dis- 
honesty against the Communal officials. 



NOTES. 

Hostages, Prisoners, and Ptiblic Buildings— 

It is not of record that the Commune ordered any deaths of hostages, 
the first executions took place on May 24th. The date of the last sitting of 
the Commune was May 21st. 

Prisoners taken in battle by the Comnaune's forces were generallj^ con- 
fined in churches and were always treated humanely. 

Extraordinary precautions were taken by the Commune to protect the 
public buildings from the bursting shells during the siege. Huge amounts 
of sand were placed in the yards of the public buildings to deaden the force 
of the projectiles. 
Loss in Money— 

Fetridge estimates the loss to the city of Paris by the Commune at 
867,500,000 francs. 

Washburne estimates the loss by fire to have been $200,000,000. 
Election of the Commune— 

The number of registered voters was 481,970; 224,197 or 46 per cent, of 
the voters took part in the election; 89,781 voters cast their votes for the 16 
who resigned; those who had voted for those who had resigned added to the 
abstainers, formed a total of 347,504 out of 482,970 registered electors. 

Voters, April 16, 53,679; abstainers, 205,173. The abstentions were 54 in 
100 at first election; April 16, 80 in 100.— J. Simon. ( See pgs. 36 and 67.) 



MISCEI.I.ANKOUS COMMENT. 21 T 



VIII. 



Frank fl. Pixley on The Commune. 

[Mr. Pixlej^ was one of the most distinguished and conservative journalists 
on the Pacific Coast]. 



The Commune is held up as the personification of 
misrule and destruction. Communists are represented as 
that worst element of city life that delights in blood and 
conflagration, and Paris of 1871 is described as a scene of 
frightful disorder, submitting to anarchy, pillage and 
murder. 

I was present in the city of Paris during the entire 
period that the Commune held sway. I was there from 
the day of the entry of the Germans till the army of 
Versailles destroyed the Commune, and the experiment of 
communal government was wiped out of existence by the 
death of forty thousand citizens, who fell in battle in the 
streets of the capital of France. 

I saw that great city of central Europe held for five 
weeks by the men of Vilette, Montmartre, and the Faubourg 
St. Antoine, by the artisans and lahorers, who for the first 
time in seventeen years had had the opportunity to bear 
arms.* There was the Bank of France with its hoarded 
wealth of coin, the House of Rothschilds, the Bank of the 
Hopes of Amsterdam ; there were the great magazines and 
storehouses filled with costly fabrcs; shops with jewels of 
untold value; palaces with costliest gems of art; pictures 
and marbles of inestimable price. There was a vast 
population which had for months endured privation, 
hunger and distress. The gendarmerie had been driven 
out, and there was no other government than that of the 
Commune. 

And yet during five weeks — weeks of menace from 
without and sufi'ering within — I saw and heard of no 
single act of pillage and murder. 

For five weeks the great forts of the enciente sent their 
destructive missiles to the heart of the city. From the 

* During the Empire there had been a separation of the workingmen's 
battalions from the othtrs'— Revere des Deux Monds, 1S72. 



212 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

Trocodero of a Sunday afternoon to the Pere la Chaise, the 
Commune soldiers contended against the Versailles trooj-s. 
From barricade to barricade, from one open space to 
another, fighting inch by inch, in desperation the soldiers 
of the Commune with their wives fighting by their sides, 
sullenly disputing every stone, block and curb-stone, 
retreated to the cemetery, and there amid the graves of the 
dead, the last of the Communists laid down their lives in 
hopeless, desperate valor. 

They may have been wrong and misguided, but that 
they were thieves, murderers and incendiaries, I most 
indignantly deny. 

During five weeks I saw no act of vandalism ; I saw 
no plunder. I saw organization and order. 

During the week of Government victory I say scenes of 
unparallelled brutality. 1 saw a hundred inexcusable bloody 
acts. [ saw a well-dressed matron stabbed to death in the 
back and flung like a dead beast into an open port cochere 
in the boulevard Haussman, because she lagged behind in 
the train of prisoners. I saw five little girls lying dead in 
a heap near the Palace d'Industrie, with their little 
petticoats thrown over their faces, shot as petroleuses by 
Versailles soldiers. I saw a man torn from his carriage 
and killed by a hundred deadly bayonet thrusts. I saw 
hundreds and hundreds of Communists fusiladed and 
buried in a trench near the river Seine. I saw every sub- 
lieutenant of the army of France armed with the power to 
arrest, try, and execute citizens, and this after the fight 
was over. I have read the death decrees and the decrees 
of exile that for five years followed this communal uprising. 

I do not believe that the Communists either burned or 
attempted to burn Paris. I believe that the whole 
petroleum story comes from an absurd scare. 

The war of the Commune was to the Great Revolution 
what the mad raid of John Brown was to our civil war. It 
was the first electric burst from the overcharged clouds. It 
will ultimate in the adoption of all the great principles for 
which the Commune contended. 

The Commune was composed of the scholars and 
thinkers of France. It was a band of patriots. If it had 
in the mad element of fanaticism, it may be excused. If 
oppressed labor classes looked for it for relief it was but 
natural. If fanaticism and disorder enrolled themselves to 
fight under its banners it was because it was the first and 
only flag where they might enlist. If poverty, distress and 
desperation looked to it for a change it was but rational. 



MlSCEIvIvANKOUS COMMKNT. 213 

The history of the Commune is written by its enemies. 
Like all lost causes it will be misrepresented. What there 
was of good in it will be suppressed. What there was of 
bad in it will be exaggerate i. 

The effort of an eye witness, at this late time and in 
these columns, is but a feeble efibrt at stemming tlie tide 
and current of opprobrium running against the Commun- 
ists of Paris. Nearly all the press of Anjerica and England, 
nearly every pulpit in Christendom, has denounced the 
Commune. The press has thundered its anathemas against 
it, and the throne of God has been bombarded from every 
Catholic and Protestant priest and preachers' desk with 
unstinted censure. 

Why the Roman church should do so I may guess. 
Why the Protestant should I do not understand. 

This little fragmentary scrap of observation may be 
gathered up for history, and may help to swell the protest 
that in the interest of truth may sometime be made. 

To the facts of which I speak I bear the testimony of a 
living witness. Of the Commune I was a part. 1 helped to 
build the barricade at the Place de I'Opera. It was begun 
by a woman in a purple frock, and a lad of perhaps fourteen 
years of age. The rule was that every passer-by should 
add a stone from the Belgian pavement with which the 
boulevard was made. I made occasion to pass often. 
From my window in the Hotel de Hollande, rue de la Paix, 
I saw the bloody fight of the Place de I'Opera. At this 
barricade I saw this woman bring water, load the guns, and 
bear away the empty ones, and when the soldiers of the 
Commune were beaten off, I saw this purple-gowned 
amazon, with disheveled hair and bloody arms, alone 
defend the ramparts that she had aided to raise, till she 
was stabbed to death with bloody bayonets. 

I rode to two midnight sorties with Dombrowski, and I 
breakfasted with Ockelowitz in the Place Vendome, for the 
Americans had the universal pass with the officers and 
soldiers of the Commune, 1 treated a regiment of Vilette 
to half a cask of red wine. It was cheap, and I was paid 
in hearing them cheer the toast I gave them in very bad 
French— "The Two Republics — the Republic of France, 
and the Grand Republic of America." 1 shall live to see 
its realization. 

I rode in an open voiture at midnight to the heights of 
:.the Butte de Montmartre to witness the artillery duel 
between it and Valerian. I met with polite attention; 
I was not robbed. 



214 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

Let London, or New York, or San Francisco fall under 
the control of its worst citizens, and we should see scenes 
of pillage, rapine, violence, drunkenness, theft and murder. 
Yet in this great rich city of Paris, given over to the Com- 
mune for five weeks, with all its wealth and wine, I saw 
order, sobriety and respect to persons and property. 

Hence I feel it my duty to say that Communism does 
noi mean a forcible and unlawful distribution of property, 
nor is the word Communist a synonym for every crime.— 
San Francisco Argonaut. 



Th« Commune and The Bank. 



The occupancy of Paris by the first Socialistic govern- 
ment of the world was marked by one trait of lofty honesty 
that is unparalleled in the history of any time. Somewhat 
as in the first revolution of 1789 it was written by the 
revolters, " Whoever speaks to the King shall be beaten ; 
whoever insults him shall be shot," so in this last and 
greater one it was decreed *'The wealth of our masters 
was stolen from us and belongs to us still, yet he among us 
who dishonor his hand by touching it, shall die." 

During the whole administration of the Commune the 
Bank of France had in its vaults two thousand nine 
hundred and eighty millions of francs equal to $596,000, 
000. It was comprised as follows : 
77,000,000 f. in coin. 
11,000,000 f. in bullion. 
7,000,000 f. in jewels. 
900,000,000 f. in script. 
800,000,000 f. in bank-notes, 
166,000,000 f. in fractional notes. 
899,000,000 f. in large notes. 
120,000,000 f. in loan securities. 

The private bank of the Hopes of Amsterdam contained : 
20,000,000 f. in coin. 

5,000,000 f. in bullion. 
190,000,000 f. in jewels and plat^. 
100,000,000 f. in notes and securities. 
The private banks of the Rothschilds w^ere said by 
them to have contained double the amount- of wealth held 
by the Bank of France. 



MlSCElyl^ANKOUS COMMENT. 215 . 

Over one hundred other private banks held the 
accumulated plunder of the Bourgeoisie— uncounted bil- 
lions, the gross amount of which cannot even be guessed at. 

Every sou of this was absolutely in the hands of the 
Commune; they had the power to confiscate and use in their 
battle for life every franc, every note, every jewel. 

And from the moment that the Versailles shot in cold 
blood the first prisoners taken, the Commune by all the 
rules of so-called "civilized " warfare had the right to con- 
ficate every penny piece. 

What they did confiscate was — nothing. 

The City of Paris through its regularly elected repre- 
sentatives donated to the Government less than $2,000,000 
of its private funds and this served as the sinews of war. 

Whether we doubt its wisdom or no, let us recognize 
and honor the lofty thought of the slave, that he would not 
sully his fingers with property which the masters had 
wrung from him in slavery. 

The world babbles with loquacious tongue of the heroes 
of ancient days, the soldiers and " statesmen " of modern 
times. Let "us, whose brothers rose to the pinnacle of a 
true heroism, be slow to outrage their memory by joining 
in that flow of words which elevates the murderer, the 
thief, and the traitor above the honest man. 

• And when we do break silence, let our voices few though 
they be, in protest or acclaim, salute not the sham but the 
real heroes of this world. — Truth, San Francisco, March 
15, 1884. 

An Awful Retrospect. 



"The splendid struggle of the Commune of 1871 has been characters 
ized by the "Edinburgh Review" as the "greatest and most 
determined attempt that History has ever seen to settle the Social 
Question by force of arms, the greatest and most determined attempt 
on the part of the workmen and their leaders to conquer a position 
from which they could, in the future, regulate Society in their, own 
way." Viewed from the simple historical standpoint i this is exactly 
what it was. Looked at by the poet.the tale of those five weeks' strug= 
gle is a page torn from an epic of the Heroic Age. To the economist, it 
is the most brilliant uprising of the people in favor of a principle 
that the world' has ever seen. To the Moralist, it is an overwhelm^ 
ing proof of the nobilty of man. To the Socialist, it is at oBce a dirge 
and a war-cry. - A dirge for the"dead,but not a sad one, for the dead 
were ours. "They, who laid down their lives so magnificently, were 
§trikihg for "usi- These<men- and women aud little childretj, wtiom 
Immort^litv has •gathered to *ief side, were of and for us, the be* 



2l6 THE PARIS COMMUMK. 

Cursed kicked and scourged wage=slaves of the World. They dared 
to strike where we dare not move a finger. They dared to die where 
we tremMe even in living. And our masters, finding their backs 
not bent meekly to the whip, as are ours, shot them down in their 
tracks as wild beasts are shot. And not content with this^ they have 
lied to us about these heroic martyrs who have died to set us free. 
Not content with their robbery while living— their murder when 
they dared resist— they have for thirteen years defamed the dead. 

It is time, at least, if we ourselves are too cowardly to break 
our own chains, that we have the decency to defend the memory of 
those who tried to break them for us. 

The blood of the men, the women, the little children of the 
Commune calls out to us from the shuddering earth, to=day, for vin. 
dication. Let ns heed that call now and then to work ! And by 
that work, unceasing, let us hope and pray that ere long, when that 
blood shall call as well for vengeance, we can respond as men, and 
not as quailing slaves. Friends, methinks we have but this one 
thing to do, to spread the light, to record the crimes of the robber- 
class, to print that record by the million and send it to every nook 
and corner of this land to make freedom sure. Even upon the report 
of Thiers himself we are content to rest our case. He reported this: 
"Number of insurgents ai rested from May 28th, 1871 to January 1st, 
1872,38,578; died, 967; acquitted, 3,147; condemned to prison, 10,131; 
nanded over to the civil courts, 212; dismissed, 1,090; shot, 23,121!!!" 

But Lissagaray, who chronicles onr side of the story swells this 
number by 20,000 more who fell unknowu and unrecorded. Mind 
you, these people were not killed iu battle, but after victory, singiy, 
in couples, squads and droves, men, women and children — for the 
sole purpose of stamping out forever, in France, the doctrines which 
would emancipate, when put in practice, the working people of the 
world. 

After the fight was over, for one whole week in Paris the 
slaughter of the working people went on. The 24,000 shoemakers of 
Paris were reduced to 12 ,000 : the bronze trade were reduced from 
2,500 to 1,500 men; the tailors from 30,000 to 22,000; and other trades 
in proportion. Every sub=lieutenant of the conquering army was 
armed with power to execute prisoners summarily . In forty places 
every day, firing parties were kept at work from morning until late at 
night at the bloody task. The proof of guilt was to smell of powder or 
to wear a blouse. 

•'The condemned were sent to the firing parties in bands of 
from six to twenty; they fell in heaps in all positions, a sanguinary 
mass. Of coursf., many resisted, and others threw themselves at the 
feet of the soldiers, protesting their innocence, embracing their 
knees and crying for mercy- mercy which was never accorded. 
Sometimes there was a wife that came in with her husband to bid 
himadeu; another time a father with his son ; sometimes both or 
all, and even little children. But once in, none went forth again. I n 
other places the metrailleuse mowed them down like grass. Against 
the eastern wall of Pere la Chaise, 1,148 souls were sent to eternity at 
once. A; long trench had been dug, and the prisoners ranged along 
the edge of it were shot and made to fall in their own graves, and 
whilst struggling in the throes of death or agony were covered with 
earth. In one Fosse Commune repose 808 and in another 300." 

The words quoted above ar^ from the pages of the history of the 
Commune, written by * * John Leighton, H. S. A., who said that 
this slaughter was a " retribution for the crime of desecrating the 
holy precincts of Gods-acre,andon that day of.days, the Sabbath," re- 
ferring to the last stand made on Sunday, by the insurgents, in tlie 
cemetery of Pere«Lachaise.v-.^r*rne«e (?. Haskell, ISSU. 



MISCBl<IvANEOUS COMMENT. 21 7 

In the Interest of *' Society.'* 

"As I drove up the broad avenue between Viroflay and 
Vereaille?, I overtook a very miserable and dejected com' 
pany : in file alter file of six "tramped a convoy of Commun- 
ist prisoners numbering over 2,000 souls. Patiently and with 
some apparent consciousness of pride they marched, linked 
closely arm in arm. Among them vi'ere many women, some 
of them tierce barricade Hecates, others mere girls, soft 
and timid, here seemingly because a parent was here also. 
All were bareheaded, foul with dust, many powder-stained, 
and the burning sun beat down on the frowzy column. Not 
the sun only beat down, but also the fiats of sabres, wielded 
by tho dashing Chasseurs d'Afrique who were the escorts of 
those unfortunates. Their own experience might have taught 
them humanity toward their captives. No sabre-blades had 
descended on their pates during that long, dreary march 
from Sedan to their German captivity; they were the pris- 
oners of soldiers. But they were prisoners now no longer, 
as they capered on their wiry barb stallions, and in their 
pride of cheap victory belabored unmercifully the miserables 
of the Commune. For many overwearied creatures who fell 
out or dropped there was short shrift; my driving-horse had 
been shying at the corpses on the road all the way from 
Sevres. At the head of the somber column were 300 or 400 
men lashed together with ropes — all powder-stained those — 
and among them not a few men is red breeches — deserters 
taken red-handed. I rather wondered what they did in this 
gang; they might as well have died fighting on the barri- 
cades, as survive to be made targets of a day or two later 
with their backs against a wall. 

On the following morning I visited Pere Lachaise, 
where the very last shots had been fired. Bivouac fires had 
been fed with souvenirs of pious sorrow, and the trappings 
of woe had been torn down to be used as bedclothes. * * 
Shells had fallen freely, and the results were occasionally 
very ghastly. But the ghastliest sight in Pere-Lachaise was 
in the southeastern corner, where close to the boundary 
wall had been a natural hollow. The hollow was now filled 
up by dead. One could measure the dead by the rood. 
There they lay tier above tier, each tier powdered over 
with a coating of chloride of lime, 200 of them patent to the 
eye, besides those underneath hidden by the earth covering 
layer after layer. Among the dead were many women. 
There, thrown up in the sunlight, was a well-rounded arm 
with a ring on one of the fingers ; there again was a bust 



2l8 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

shapely in death ; and there were faces which to look upon 
made one shudder — faces distorted out of humanity with 
ferocity and agonj' combined. The ghastly effect of the 
dusky white powder on the dulled eyes, the gnashed teeth, 
and the jagged beards cannot be described. How died 
those men and women ? Where they carted here and laid 
out in ghastly lyinir-in-state in this dead-hole of Pere- 
Lachaise ? Not so; the hole had been replenished from 
close by. There was no difficulty in reading the open book* 
Just there was where they were posted up against yonder 
pock-pitted wall, and shot to death as they stood or 
crouched." — Archibald Forbes. 



"The largest butcher pen of modern times is Satory. It is the 
form of a parallellogram and contains several acres. It was once 
used as an artillery park, and there still remained the stables used 
for the horses. But this it was before it had occured to the Govern- 
ment that they would serve the cause of Justice and Humanity by 
transporting hither 20,000 people, inclusive of those who fell on the 
way "by accident," to be shot. It is said that those 20,000 were the 
poorest animals ever slaughtered in Paris, which, indeed, is not won- 
derful, seeing that in the case of human animals the ordinary process 
must be reversed from fattening to starving. 

The butcher pen at Satory is surrounded by walls, and when the 
great drove of 20,000 victims, less what had fallen on the way "by 
accident" entered it, there were numerous holes in the walls through 
which ferocious cannons scowled ominously. When the vast drove 
arrived the old stables had already been filled to suffocation, and 
many thousands were huddled together here and there and enclosed 
by ropes. The drove was marched in a short distance from the gate, 
and being huddled close together, a rope tied at convenient distance 
to stakes was drawn around them and a strong guard with chasse- 
pots placed over them. They were placed directly in front of several 
large guns charged with grape and canister, which were ordered to 
to fire into the crowd on the slightest manifestation of disorder. * 
The rain had now also commenced to pour again and beat upon the 
poor wretches incessantly. Many, as I have said, were pounded; 
some of their wounds were sore and some were still fresh and bleed- 
ing. So that when a squad was moved from one place to another for 
any cause, to be shot mainly, one might see stains of blood here and 
there, and little pools of bloody water. Some of these wounded had 
their friends with them who did all they could for them, which was 
very little; others were neglected. Many were very old; some were 
very young. Most of them were fainting from fatigue, and all of 
them were hungry. They were too tired to stand. They threw them- 
selves on the ground and the water settled around them, sometimes 
several inches deep. 

Guards were posted thickly everywhere ; the poor captives were 
savage, mad, covered with wet and mud. The faces were begrimed 
with smoke and powder, which, mingling with the rain which beat in 
their faces, presented a frightful appearance. The wretched prison- 
ers were nearly all bare-headed, many bare-footed and the great 
majority scantily dressed or in dirty tatters. They were shivering; 
their lips pale and bloodless, and their teeth chattering in the cold 
drifting rain. One thing was observable on all hands : there was no 
repenting of what they had done, no curses, no revilings, no reproaches: 
against their chiefs, but when they were shot they unanimously 
shouted: 'Vive la Commune'."— Jf'w. Du Gas Trammell. 



MISCELLANEOUS COMMENT. 219 

Megy in New York. 

Megy went to New York in 1878, and was 
interviewed by a reporter of the New York World 
and in brief made the following statement : "I 
was born in 1844; had a common school education; 
was apprenticed to a machinist, and j oined a secret 
society which had Blanqui for its head; at 20 I 
found work on the Suez canal; returned to Paris 
in 1866; was in the uprising of February 7th; and 
assisted in the raising of barricades; six police 
agents were sent to arrest me after the defeat and 
I killed the first with a pistol; I was overpowered, 
dragged to prison, sentenced to 20 years at New 
Caledonia, with hard labor; was released when the 
Republic was proclaimed. I was in the movement 
to deprive General Trochu of his command, and a 
warrant was issued for my arrest; I enlisted under 
another name and fought the Prussians; went to 
the South of France at the conclusion of the war; 
arrested the Prefect of Police at Marseilles and 
took his place for eight days; in April, 1871, came 
to Paris and commanded Fort Issy, and after its 
fall fought at the barricades; participated in the 
shooting of the hostages at La Roquette; I fought 
to the last; escaped in a coal cart; went to Geneva; 
have worked in London and Birmingham, and am 
now working: here in New York." 



The Adoance 0/ " Order " — 

"We have official proof that several houses to which National Guards had 
fled were surrounded by gen d'arines, and set fire to with petroleum, the 
bodies being afterward fetched out, in a half-burned state, by the ambulance^ 
of the Press of Ternes."— -SVre^c/iilev/. 

Rewarded by the Conquerors— 

Ducatel, who informed the Versaillese of the undefended condition of 
Porte St. Cloud, received the Cross of the Legion of Honor, and a public 
subscription brought him about $22,000. He also held a government 
appointment for eume years. 



220 THE PARIS COMMUNE: 

Wm. DuQas Trammell. 

William Du Gas Trammel is the only native 
born American known to have fought at the 
barricades in defence of the Commune. The 
following sketch is from the Atlanta Constitution: 

Judge WiUiam DuGas Trammell, born in Harris County, Georgia, 
in 1848, died in Fort Worth, Texas, June 6, 1884 Mr. Trammell was 
graduated from University of Georgia, 1870, when that famous school 
was under the control of Dr. A. A.Liipscomb, by whom Mr Trammell 
war regarded as a young man of remarkable talent and unusual 
promise; leaving school he engaged in the practice of law, but occa- 
sionally found recreation in literary pursuits, his chief literary work 
was "Ca Ira," a novel published about 1874, in which the author em- 
bodied views of the social, industrial and political relations of man- 
kind, that excited much comment. Judge Trammell was an earnest 
advocate of the common people, and at the the time of his death was 
a Vice-President of the " Workingmen's International Association," 
ivhich had its headquarters in New York City. 

He was a devoted son, and a loving, affectionate brother; and the 
idol of the family— mother, sister and brother— who looked to him, and 
not in vain, for counsel and support. 

Wonderfully conversant with political history for one so young, 
•fond of metaphysical and abstract reasoning, with a keen relish fo)' 
all speculative philosophy and entertaining views of social and 
and political rights not wholly in sympathy with his time and genera- 
tion, he was regarded by many as an extremist. Yet his great 
capabilities were conceded by all who knew him, and, in a less utili- 
tarian age, with favorable surroundings, he would have attained 
eminence as a philosopher, as a student, as an expounder of political 
liistory. 

We trust that the great mystery of life, the great theme of his 
speculative mind, has been revealed to him in perpetual bliss. 
" So be it. There no shade can last. 
In that deep dawn behind the tomb. 
But clear from marge to marge shall bloom. 
The eternal landscape of the past." 



"Recollections." 

"The city was delivered from the monstous oppression of the insur" 
rectionists who, for 10 weeks, had held the people in terror,— murdering> 
robbing, imprisoning, and making life one continual torment. Then came 
the reaction. When the orderly and peaceful citizens, relieved from the 
shocking tyranny of the Commune, began to get the upper hand as is 
■atural to suppose, they were inspired with a certain degree of rage which 
it was almost impossible to control. No sooner had Paris been captured 
than the great work began of arresting the thousands of criminals— mur- 
ders, assassins, robbers, desperadoes, and outlaws of every description— who 
had so long made the beautiful city a pandemonium. In the most insurrec- 
tionary parts of the town the people were arrested en masse, 

It would take too long to recount all the frightful incidents which 
followed the capture of Paris. There were no less than fifty thousand 
insurgents arrested; how many were summarily executed will never be 
known.— Washbume. 



MISCELLANKOUS COMMENT. 221 

THE SPIRIT OF INTERNATIONALISM. 



The number of high positions held by foreign- 
ers under the Commune was very large : 

Anys-el-Biltar, Director of Manuscripts at National Library [Egyptian]. 
Biondetti, Surgeon-in-Chief, 233d battalion [Italian]. 
Babick, Member of the Commune [Pole]. 
Becka, Adjutant of the 207th battalion [Pole]. 

Cluseret, General, Delegate of War [Frenchman naturalized American]. 
Cernatesco, Surgeon-major [Pole]. 
Crapulinski, Colonel of the Staff [Pole]. 
Capellaro, Member of Military Bureau [Italian]. 

Carneiro de Cunha, Surgeon-major of the 38th battalion [Portuguese]. 
Charalambo, Surgeon-major of the Federal sharpshooters (Pole). 
Cyprani, Italian, Aide to Flourens. 

Dombrowski, Ladislas, General of the forces of the Commune (Pole). 
Dombrowoki, Jaroslaw— his brother— Colonel of the staff (Pole) 
DurnofF, Commandant of a legion (Pole) 
Echenlaub, Colonel of the 8Sth battalion (German). 
Ferrara Gola, Director-general of the ambulances (Portuguese). 
Frankel, Member of the Commune (Prussian). 
Giorok, Commandant (Wallachian). 

Grejorok, Commandant of the artillery at Montmartre (Wallachian), 
Kertzfeld, Director-in-chief of the ambulances (German). 
Iziquerdo, Surgeon-major of the 88th battalion (Polo). 
Jalowski, Surgeon-major of the Republican Zouaves (Polo). 
Kobosko, Placed in the order of day of army of the Commune (Pole). 
La Cecilia, General (Italian). 

Landowski, Aide-de-camp of General Dombrowski (Pole). 
Mizara, Commandant of the lOith battalion (Italian). 
Maratuck, Aide-major of the 72d battalion (Hungarian). 
Moro, Commandant of the 22d battalion (Italian). 
Okolowicz and his brothers. General and staff-officers (Poles) 
Ostyn, member of the Paris Commune (Belgian). 
Olinski, Chief of the 17th legion (Pole). 
Pisani, Aide-de-camp of Flourens (Italian). 
Potampenki, Aide-de-camp of General Dombrowski (Pole). 
Ploubinski, Staff ofHcer (Pole). 
Pazdzierswski, Commandant (Pole). 
Piazza, Chief of legion (Italian). 
Pugne, Musical-director at the opera (Italian). 
Romanelli, Director of war materials (Italian). 
Rozzski, Surgeon-major of the 144th battalion (Pole). 
Rubinowiez, Staft'-officer [Pole]. 

Rubinowicz, [P.,] Surgeon-major of the fusileers of marine [Pole]. 
Syneck, Surgeon -major of 151st battalion [German]. 
Skalski, Surgeon-major of the 240th battalion [Polej. 
Soteriade, Surgeon-major [Spaniard]. 
Thaller, Sub-governor of Fort Bicetre | German]. 
Van Ostal. Commandant of the 115th battalion [Dutch]. 
Vetzel, Commandant of the southern forts [German]. 
Wrobleski, General Commandant of the army of the South [Pole]. 
Wetten, Surgeon-major of the 72d battalion [naturalized American]. 
Zengerler, Sui'geon-niajor of the 74th battalion [German]. 
[Thig list is incomplete.] 



'222 THE PARIS COMMUNE. 

MEMBERS. 
*'!" member Int. W. A. Names, Occupations, Punishments, etc. * Living, 

Adam, merchant, AUix, Jules, teacher, shot; Amouroux, hatter, 

transported for life; Andrieu, teacher, escaped to London; Arnaud, Antoine, 
railroad employe, L, shot; Arnold,* architect; Arnould, Arthur, man of 
letters; escaped to Switzerland; Assi, engineer, I., transported for life; 
Avrial,* engineer, I,, escaped. 

Babick, laborer, escaped to Switzerland; Barre, tobacconist, escaped; 
Bergeret, printer, I., escaped. Beslay, civil engineer, I, escaped; Billio- 
ray, artist, I., transported for life; Bianchet, priest, I., shot; Blanqui, politi- 
cal economist and journalist, imprisoned; de Bouteiller, naval officer, 

Brelay, merchant, shot; Briosne;* Brunei,* traveller, 

Chalain, Jorass-turuer, I., shot; Champy, chaser, transported for life, 
Chardon, coppersmith, escaped to Switzerland; Cheron, merchant, shot; 
Clemence, book-binder, I, escaped; Clement, Emil, shoemaker, shot; Clement, 
J. B . , literary man, escaped to London ; Clement, Victor, working dyer, three 
months in prison; Cluseret, agitator, I, escaped; Courbet, artist, six 
months in prison, and fine ; Cournet, journalist, escaped. 

Delescluze, journalist, I. , shot on the barricade; Demay, workman, un- 
known; Dereure, shoemaker, I., escaped to America; Decamps, iron 
founder ** acquitted;" Demasrest, advocate, unknown; Dupont, G., bank 
clerk, shot; Dupont, Clovis, basket maker, I., shot; Durand, shoemaker, 
escaped; Duval, iron founder, I., shot. 

Eudes, reporter, I. , shot at Vincennes. 

Ferre, accountant, shot; Ferry, Emile, unknown; Flourens, professor, 
journalist, I., cut to death with sabre. Fortune, Henry, I., shot; Frankel, 
jeweler, L, shot; Fruneau, unknown. 

Gambon, ex-Deputy, I., shot; Garibaldi, M. declined office; Gerardin, 
Eugene, workman, unknown; Gerardin, Charles, traveller, unknown; 
Geresme, corset-maker, I., shot; Goupil, physician, "arrested;" Grousset 
Paschal, journalist, I, transported for life. 

Johannard, traveler, I., shot; Jourde, medical student, I., transported. 

Langevin, turner, L, shot; Ledroit, merchant, unknown; Lefevre, Ernest, 
journalist, I, shot; Lefrancais, accountant, I., escaped to Geneva; Leroy, 
Albert, literary man, unknown.; Loiseau-Pinson, unknown; Lonclas, hotel- 



keeper, escaped; Longuet, student, I., escaped. 

Malon, clerk, I., shot; Marmottan, physician, I., shot; Martelet, decora- 
tive painter, I., escaped to Geneva; Meillet, Leo,* law student, I., escaped; 



Meiine, advocate, fate unknown; Miot, Jules, chemist, L, shot; Mortier, 
architect, L, shot; Murat, engineer, I., shot. 

Nast, unknown. 

Ostyn,* workman, L, Oudet, porcelain painter, L, shot. 

Parent, Ulysse, journalist, "acquitted;" Parisel, physician, I., shot; 
Phillippe, hotel-keeper, I., shot; Pillot, physician, I., shot; Pindy, joiner, 
I., escaped to London; Pottier, designer, I., shot; Protot,* advocate, escaped 
to Belgium; Puget, accountant, unknown; Pyat, escaped. 

jianc ; Ranvier, painter, escaped to London; Rastoul, physician, 

L, transported; Regere, veterinary surgeon, L, shot; Robinet, physician, I., 
unknown; Rigault,Rioul, law student, shot; Rogeard, man of letters, I., shot; 
Rochard, ) 

Serrailler, last-maker, I., escaped to London; Sicard, shoe-maker, I., 
unknown ; Serizier, currier, shot. 

Theisz, silver chaser, I., escaped to London; Tirard, jeweler, unknown; 
Tridon, medical student, reported died at Brussels; Triiiquet, shoemaker, 
L, hard labor for life. 

Urbain, school master, I., hard labor for life. 

Vaillant,* journalist, civil engineer, I; escaped to London; Valles, Julea, 
journalist,!., shot; Yarlin, book-binder, L, shot; Verdure, accountant, I., 
transported for life; Vermorel, journalist, shot; Vesinier, secretary to 
Eugene Sue, I., escaped; Viard, clerk, escaped. 



MlSCEI.I.ANE)OUS COMMKNT. 22$ 

PROMINENT CHARACTERS 

«I" member Int. W. A. Names, Occupations. Punishments, etc. * Livingr. 

Ahadie civil engineer, fate unknown; Alavoine, I., fate unknown; 

AnditnmS' wne merchant,' I. , prison for life; Anys-el-Biltar, manager MS3. 

depS^t Natfonal Library, L, fate unknown; Avoine Sr., modeler, I., eg. 

■^"^lir^^ut wkZn,'Se'u,Sn^ Basteliea, I., organizer, escaped to 

Lonfo" BoiircSiv, journalist, unknown; BouUenger, (J. C, prison for 

""'''^^^Innltt^e^v^t^^^^ I-, prison for life; Cavalier 

rPor?e?ci?UeSeer I. hard labor for life; Cavesky, butcher, unknown. 

Charfes 'S dSrrunkkown: Chouteau, house painter, unknown; Com. 

w/ tPlP^anher unknown; CombaiUt, jeweler, I. , unknown. 

bicoste JouVS^^^^^ I. prison; Debock, printer,, I, escaped t« 
;i^*°?^^'„J,V"^pf" ' editor unknown; Dombrowski, Ladilas, L, Ex- 

fr.t"i^ rSu rrmy,'shot MaV23T5ombrowski, Jarosla'w, L, served with 

S^wLrScaned^DuBisson, ex-General, I., unknown; Durassier, shot. 
Fahre cllrk^I Bhotf Fontaine, professor of mathematics I. , shot m 

thei^e BonaparteY Ferrkt, man of letters, L, transported for hfe; Fosse, 

'""^Gailfard Sr shoe-maker, escaped; Ganiot, Pyrrhus, in prison; Ganier, 
^.Aw^rpnpml in Chief of the King of Siam, I., unknown; Gamier, 
Eugene act?r I K Gau^^^^ shot; Genton, shot; Gouhier I., shot; 
ffier,' bleacher',' escaped; Groslard, circus, unknown; Guedenal, writer, 

""'^Heniv actor I„ unknown; Henry, artistic, L, imprisoned; Henry, 
arm?Sr I., shot Humbert, journalist, unknown Jaclard, professor 
of mathematics, I., prison for life; Josselin, bank clerk, unknown 

Lacame unknowS; La Cecilia, ex-professor of mathmatics at Ulm, I , 
escaSoEngUnrLacord, cook, unknown; Landeck jeweler, I escape^ 
to BKona La?ocque, journalist, L, prison for life; Lavallette, draper, I., 
^7^^ fn^i^P- T Xau ex-armv officer, I., prison for life; Le Moussu, insur. 
K uSnown tevrault, Se^ Li«l>0"«^ ^f^',' I- 

wouAdedrprTson for life;' Lissagaray, journalist, L, escaped to England; 

"^""SjoS^boSnlf t^ prison;.Maret, journalist fined 

500 francs Maroteau, journalist, 1., shot; Matuzewicz, army officer, L, un. 
S?o^J^i Marbrother's, jewelers L, unknown; Megy, engineer, I,, escaped; 
nXre, joumaUst L,'shot; Moreau, journalist, L.shot; Mourot, journalist, 
I., shot. 

Napiar, Piquet, ]., shot. a„*„,„ 

ton advocate, unknown; Peyrusset, naval officer, I., shot; Pilotell, artist, 

^n"azouf%S?alist,"L^^^^^^^^ 

Reownhot Tochefort, journalist, L, transported for life; Romanetti, ex- 
S officer, unknown ^o^sel, captain of engineers shot; Rousseau, porter, 
uSo^^ Salvador, musician, shot in the Rue Jacob; Secondigne, journalist, 
Snk^own- Syh estre, unknown. Tony Moilin, physician, shot; Tpupe, un- 
too vrTVeXa?d, solicitor, shot. Van der Hooven, unknosvn; Vermescb, 
SurSist Sfpe'd; Vericq, Jean, officer, unknown; Volpesml, unknown. 
Wrobleski, Russian general, shot. 

The Women, 
Madame Leroy, prison for life. Marchais, shot. Leo, Andre, escaped, 
SaSn, 10 yekrs in prison. Retilf , shot. Robert prison for hfe 

SS, Loui'se, prisoS for life. Suetins, shot. BS'''pP"^"/,^/,^^3; 
Bonnefoy, prison for life. . , Mm«^k, Paule, escaped, 

■"* [This record is only partial]. 



224 ^HE PARIS COMMUNR. 

LETTER FROM EDOUARD VAILLANT. 

15 Villa du Bel Air, 

Paris, December 24, 1897. 
G. B. Benham : 

Dear Sir — It is not an easy task for me to 
answer your letter at once. I do not know how 
many members of the Commune are now living; I 
tell you only what I know, of the following, now 
living members of the Commune : Cluseret, 
Paschal Grousset and myself, Edouard Vaillant, are 
now members of the French Chamber of Deputies. 

G. lycfrancais writes now in the French 
Socialist paper V Aurore. 

J. B. Clement, poet and writer, writes now in 
the Socialist paper La Petite Repiiblique. 

I^onguet, Chief Inspector of the Teaching of 
the Modern Languages in the Schools of Paris. 

Brunei, Professor of the French language in 
the Royal Naval School, Woolwich, (or perhaps 
Dartmouth,) England. 

lyco Meillet, Professor of the French language 
in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Champy, conseiller prudhomme, (elected 
Judge in trades disputes between employers and 
employed). 

Arnold, Architect, Teacher of Drawing in the 
School of Paris. 

Protot, Barrister. 

Avrial, Engineer. 

Ostyn, Manager of an insurance company. 

I have so told you either what I know or 
what I was told. 

Believe me, dear sir, yours very sincerely,' 
Edouard "Vaillant, 

M. R. C. S. Eng,. 



ENKMmS OF TH^ COMMUNE. 225 

IX. 
Enemies of The Commune. 



That the National Assembly had been elected 
under a restricted mandate, has never been con- 
troverted. Its business was to decide on the 
question of peace or war, and then to dissolve, so 
that an Assembly, chosen as legislators by the 
people might take its place, bearing direct from 
the constituencies a clear expression of the public 
will on all the great questions of the day.* 

Cassell says : " That the Assembly did ulti- 
mately proceed to settle the form of government, 
does not at all show that it had any right to do so." 

Louis Adolphe Thiers was born April i6th, 
1797, at Marseille; died September 5th, 1877. 
Thiers was the son of a locksmith. He studied 
law, but met with little success as an advocate. 
His " History of the P'rench Revolution " raised 
him to celebrity. His " History of the Consulate 
and Empire " is considered his greatest work. 

Thiers '* History of the French Revolution " founded his literary and 
helped his political fame. The well-known sentence of Carlisle that " it 
is as far as possible from meriting- its high reputation" is in strictness 
justified in regard to all Thiers' historical works. They are all marked by 
extreme inaccuracy, by prejudice which passes the limit of accidental unfair- 
ness and sometimes seems to. approach positive dishonesty. His works 
possess, however, in a high degree the gifts of clearness, liveliness and 
intelligible handling. In all his writings he displayed great knowledge of 
military operations. 

*The Assembly which gathered at Bordeaux consisted of Orleanists 400; 
Republicans, 150; Legitimists, 50; Bonaipartists, 20; doubtful 30. . This body, 
whose acts have to someextent been referred, to, was, as may be seen by 
the political beliefs, represented, an exceedingly conservative Congress. 

The International Association of Workers was by the l^iational Assembly 
on March, 1872, declared to be illegal, and to belong to it was a penal offence.. 



226 THE PARIS COMMUNK. 

"The chronicle of Thiers life is the record of the misfortunes of France." 
A Republican in 1830, he betrayed Lafitte, excited mob riots against the 
clergy, and thus ingratiated himself with Louis Phillipe. The subsequent 
massacres of Republicans were largely his work, and the laws against 
^association and a free press were the result of his exertions. It was his plan 
to fortify Paris in 1840. The Republicans denounced it a plan to endanger 
their their liberty. This he declai'ed to be impossible. He sneered at rail- 
ways as wild chimeras, while a minister of Louis Phillipe. In 1848 he shook 
with horror when Palermo was bombarded by the government "because the 
city demanded its rights." Eighteen months after he defended the bom- 
bardment of Pvonie by French troops. Anxious for notoriety, he declared 
himself a revolutionist, not only in France, biit of Europe. He left the first 
ministry a millionaire, thougii he went into office an impecunious ad- 
venturer. Again in office, his peculations exposed him to taunts in the 
Chamber of Deputies, to which he replied in copious tears. "He per- 
petually harped on the French loss of prestige, and so contributed more 
than any one else to stir up that fatal spirit which brought on the war of 
1870, and while constantly weakening the government of his country, he 
gave no help nor even offered any." ( Enc. Brit.) 

Thiers was consistent only in his greed for wealth and in hatred of the 
men who produced it. The Second Empire had more than doubled the 
National debt; the municipalities had enormously increased their liabilities 
and now added to this was the huge amount of indebtedness necessarily 
incurred to pay the demands of the victors. Patriot that he was, he was con- 
tent to endow himself with three million francs a year in the Bordeaux 
Assembly, at a time when the financial downfall of France seemed thus 
impending. 

Beslay, a member of the Commune, (himself a capitalist) thus addressed 
Thiers: " The enslavement of labor by capital has always been the corner* 
stone of your policy, and since the very day the Republic of Labor was 
installed in the Hotel de Ville, you have never ceased to cry ' these are 
criminals. ' " 

A master in small state roguery, a virtuoso in perjury and treason, a 
craftsman in all the petty stratagems, cunning devices, and base perfidies of 
Parliamentary party-warfare; never scrupling, when out of office, to fan a 
revolution, and to stifle it in blood when at the helm of the State; with class 
prejudices standing him in the place of ideas, and vanity in the place of a 
heart; his private life as infamous as his public life is odious— even now, 
^hen playing the part of a French Sulla, he cannot help setting off the abomi- 
nation of his deeds by the ridicule of his ostentation.— J^ duress of Int. W. A. 

The London Spectator, speaking of Thiers, says : "At the age of 74, after 
passing through every conceivable shade of political opinion * without 
pretending to have any other guide to his gyrations than expediency. * * 
That he has ever understood what an historical principle, what a political 
principle, what even an economical principle means, we do not in the least 
believe. Poor France indeed with such a savior. He has lived his whole 
life on the hand to mouth principle both as a litterateur and statesman." 

In those artifices dependent on falsehood and insincerity, there has 
been scarcely a man in public life whose record equals that of Thiers. 
Every mask of political character seemed to fit him with singular exactness 
— Orleanist, Imperialist, Republican, Revolutionist— with all the inter- 
mediate shades of political complexion — he had assumed and discarded them 
with the inconstancy of a harlot and the flippancy of a mountebank. 

Of the prisoners brought to Versailles in early April, (the barbarous 
treatment and killing of which were a spectacle enjoyed from a balcony by 
Madames Thiers and Favre,) Thiers said : " TSever have more degraded 
fcountenances of a degraded democracy met the afflicted gaze of honest men." 

While endeavoring to enlist the assistance of outside districts on March 
-25th he said : "Come what may, I shall send no army to Paris," On May 
18th Thiers said : ''I desire to punish none but the murderers of Lecomte 
and Clement Thomas." A» the time for entering Paris drew near he said 



ENEMIES OF THE COMMUNE. 227 

in the Assembly. " I shall be pitiless; the expiation shall be complete." On 
the 22.1 he said "t j-day I come to tf:ll you our ooal is reached." "Our soldiers 
merit our highest esteem" was Thiers' way in public reports, of encouraging- 
the continuance of the murders, which were not only opposed to the dic- 
tates of humanity, but contrary to the usages of 'civilized warfare.' 

Under the exterior of a savant and a litterateiu-, was concealed the 
sanguii;ary disposition of a Caligula or Jxistinian II. Lacking the 

courage of a soldier, he displayed the )nalignity of a tyrant. 

From the abyss of darkness to which his heinous acts consign him, he will 
be dragged to view in days to come, to illustrate the crafty ambition of a 
sycophant, the conduct of an unprincipled politician and the inhumanities of 
an aged despot. 

Thiers, when elected in the Assembly as 
President of the French Republic, was given full 
powers to choose all his cabinet officers. He 
asserted "that in selecting them he had been 
guided solely by the public esteem they enjoyed 
and their character and capacities." His se- 
lections were as follows : 

Dufaure, Minister of Justice; Favre, Foreign 
Affairs; Picard, Interior; J. Simon, Public In- 
struction; Lambrecht, Commerce; General de Flo, 
War; Admiral Pathuau, Marine; de I^arey, Public 
Works; Pouyer-Quertier, Finance. 

Jules Favre was a lawyer of note and had been 
a prominent member of the Republican party. He 
was born at Lyons, March 21st, 1809. Although 
Favre was an orator of much power "renowned for 
the Attic elegance of his language," he had little 
ability as a statesman, and his private life was 
singularly disgraceful. He died at Versailles 
January 20th, 1880. 

Millere was shot by the express and standing order of Jules Favre, 
During the armistice between the Germans and the French, when Favre was 
a candidate for the Peace Ast^embly, Millere wrote an article in which it was 
alleged that Fa\re had lived for many years in concubinage with the wife of 
a drunken resident of Algiers, and had, by a "daring concoction of forgeries 
spread over many years, contrived to grasp, in the name of the children of 
his adultery a large succession, which made him a rich man, and that in a 
law suit undertaken by the legitimate heirs, he only escaped exposure by 
the connivance of the Bonapartists tribunals " All this was incontro- 
vertably proven to be true in the courts in a case brouglit after the 
Commune b> Favre, in which he sought damages from the man who had 
given Millere the information The evidence disclosed at the trial com- 
pletely wrecked Favre politically.. 

Dufaure, Minister of Justice, was 84 years of 
age, lawyer of Orleanist sympathies, and had been 



228 THB PARIS COMMUNE. 

the "justiciary of the state of siege as now in 1871 
tinder Thiers, so in 1839 under Louis Bonaparte's 
Presidency." Dufaure distinguished liimself by 
formulating laws of deportation which exceeded 
in speed and sweeping action the statutes which 
had been for the Second Empire sufficiently 
effective. Dufaure in a circular on April 23rd, 
commended the Assembly to treat the "cry of con- 
ciliation as a crime." 

Pouyer-Quertier, Minister of Finance was a 
cotton spinner of Rouen, who had attained "emi- 
nence " by his success in withholding from the 
product of his employes sufficient amounts to make 
him recognized as a financial luminary. 

Picard, (with his brother, a notorious cri- 
minal) had used his official position to enrich 
himself in stock gambling while Paris was under- 
going the Prussian siege. Picard amused himself 
in Versailles by going from one group of captives 
to another jesting in loud tones on the nature of 
their wounds, their unwashed condition and the 
necessity for their death. 

As for those of the Ministry not speciallj^ 
mentioned here, there seems to have been nothing 
to distinguish them from the ordinary place- 
seekers of the time, who had gained Thiers esteem 
by the facility with which they had advanced 
themselves during the infamous reign of the Third 
Napoleon. 

Marie Bdme Patrice Maurice MacMahon, 
due de Magenta, was born in 1808, a son of a peer of 
France. His services in the Italian campaign for 
1859, and particularly at the battle of Magenta 
gained for him his title. He was defeated at 
Worth and at Sedan in the Franco-German war of 
during the Second Empire. His action during the 



ENEMIES OF THE COMMUNE. 229 

'Commune was acceptable to the bourgeois, and 
he was president of the French Republic 1873-79. 

McMahon and Bismarck, for many years after the Commune, were 
zealous in their efforts in dogging those survivors who escaped the tribunals 
of the Versaillese. 

Almost every European country was willing and anxious to have anj- 
fugitives within "their borders extradited and executed. 

Victor Hugo, called to Belgium by the death of a relative, notified the 
the world through the Brussels press on May 26th, that the asylum denied 
by Belgium he would offer in his private residence in Brussels. On the 
following night the lovers of " order " stoned his house; he narrowly escaped 
severe injur}% and the Belgium government issued an order for his eject- 
ment fron Belgium territory. 



United States Minister Washburne was the 
only foreign representative who officially recog- 
nized the Commune. Washburne also represented 
the German and Mexican governments, and seems 
to have been general utility man for all enemies of 
the Commune. While ostensibly interesting him- 
self in the hostages and other matters as a private 
citizen he solicited and was granted favors never 
obtained by private individuals. Ferre had the 
courage to resent his constant meddling. 

Note — Megy in an interview (1878) characterized Minister Washburne as 
" a liar and a German spy during the Commune." Frank M. Pixley (after 
the publication of Washburne's book 1887) expressed substantially the same 
sentiments. 



COMMUNIST'S ARMS AND OCCUPATIONS 

There was taken from the Communists the following arms : 285,000 
chas'sepots; 195,000 guns a tabatiere; 68,000 guns a piston; that is, 548,000 
guns of different models, with sabre bayonets, or bayonets with their 
corresponding shoulderbelt; 56,000 cavalry sabres of all forms and for all 
ranks; 14,000 carbines, mostly Enfield; 39,000 revolvers. Finally, 10,000 
arms of every kind, such as daggers, stilettoes, sword-canes, etc, , giving a 
total of 667,000 weapons of every kind taken from the hands of the Com- 
munists, aud 1,700 pieces of cannon and mitrailleuses. 

There were from 15,000 to 20,000 arrested and transported. From the 
official report of General Appertz, we take the following nine classes of 
workmen :— Laborers, 2,901; locksmiths, 2,664; masons, 2,293; cabine 
makers, 1,667; shopmen, 1,598; servants, 1,402; clerks, 1,065; cabmen, 1,024; 
painters, 863 — making 15,477, in nine categories out of 33, besides several 
men of property. Other classification by occupation on pages 40 and 216>) 



230 THK PARIS COMMUNE. 

ARRESTS, PUNISHMENTS, ETC. 

Tho following- is a list of arrestel members of the Commune, appre- 
hended previous to 12 months after May 29, 1871: 

Ant. Arnaud, Assi, Amouroux, G. Arnold, Billioray, V. Clement, E. 
Clement, Courbet, Champy, A. Dupont, C. Dupont, Paschal Grousset, E. 
Gerardin, Geresme. Goupil, Jourde, Pillot, Regere, Rastoul, Trinquet, Ur- 
bain, Verdure. All of these were sentenced to various penalties, varying 
from hard labor and transportation for life to three month's imprisonment: 
two also had fines to pay. Jourde was sentenced to transportation; Rastoul 
had the same sentence. Assi, Grousset, Billioray, Regere, Verdure and 
Ferrat to deportation and confinement in a fortress. Courbet six months' 
imprisonment, and fined 500 francs; Clement to three months. 

Trials were had on the absentees including- the dead, and Rigault, Deles- 
cluze and Varlin were sentenced to death. Fifty members of the Commune 
had not been captured May 29, 1872, (many of them were dead) but they 
were tried, and. on various charges, 39 being- sentence to death, 11 to life im- 
prisonment. They were as follows: 

Allix, Avrial, A. Arnould, Andrieu, Babick, Blanchet, Bergeret, Brunei, 
Cluseret, Chardon, Cournet, J. B. Clement, Clemence, Chalain, Demay, 
Durand, Dereure, Frankel, Ch. Gerardin, Gambon, Henri Fortune, Lonclas, 
Lonquet, Langevin, Lefrancais, Ledroyt, Martelet, Mortier, Meillet, Miot, 
Malon, Ostyn, Oudet, Pindy, Pottier, Protot, Puget, Parisel, Pyat, Ranvier, 
Ranc, Sicard, Serailler, Theisz, Viard, Vesinier, Vaillant. 

Forty-five members of the Committee Central had been arrested within 
a year after the Commune's fall and 39 were uncaptured. 

Lullier, Maxime Lisbonne and Grelier, members of the Committee Cen- 
tral were sentenced to death. It was expected that Lullier would be acquitted 
on the grounds of insanity. 

Ulysee Parent, Lefevre and Descamps were acquitted, and the others 
captured were transported. 

The following were executed on dates given, being sentenced for offenses 
mentioned: 

Ferre, (Member of Commune), was executed Nov. 28, 1871, for com- 
plicitv in the affair of the hostages; Phillipe, (Member Commune) Jan. 
22d, 1873, for incendiarism; Rossel, for bearing arms against France, 
28th Nov. 1871. [It is said Thiers made efforts to save RossePs life.] 
Serizier and Boin, complicity in the killing of the Dominicans, May 
25th, 1872; Rouillac, killing Chemist Dubois, July 6th, 1872; Lecroix 
and Lagrang, Federates, and Verdguer, Sergeant 88th regiment de 
marche, participation in the Lecomte-Clement-Thomas shooting, the 
first on Feb. 23d, the last two Feb. 22, 1872; Boudin, incendiarism, 
May 25, 1872. For shooting hostages in Rue Haxo; Aubroy, Dalivoust, 
De Saint Omer, Francois, July 25, 1872, and Benot, Jan. 22d, 1873. For 
shooting hostages at La Roquette; Genton, April 30th, 1872; Lolive, 
Sept. 18, 1372. Shooting Chauday; Preau de Vedel, March 19, 1872; for 
shooting Comtede Beaufort, Deniville, Sept. 19, 1872. 

There was a bitter feeling among the French populace when the atroci- 
ties of the Versaillese were brought to their remembrances by the action of 
these Courts. The Deputies were averse to granting amnesty to the pris- 
oners and exiles, though various attempts were made to that end. However, 
in March, 1879, a partial amnesty was granted, which restored to full citizen- 
ship all but 400 fugitives, and all prisoners except about 300. On July 12, 
1880, full amnesty to all prisoners or exiles was decreed and nearly all 
returned to France. London had been the home of very many of the exiles, 
some of whom had achieved distinction in English Governmental and other 
positions. Some arrests and sentences took place as late as 1877. 

Total number of prisoners recorded as taken 38,578. Of these 1,090 
-were liberated after simply questioning; 967 died before trial; 1,957 



ARRESTS, PUNISHMENTS, ETC 231 

were men, 235 women, 77 children. The 36,309 unaccounted for above 

were arrested as follows: 

Before the entry into Paris 3,224 

During the 8 days' fight ...... 18,756 

Fugitives handed over by Prussians ... 625 

After the fall of the Commune . , . . 13,399 

Captured at various times outside Paris . . 305 



36,309 



The prisoners are classified as follows : 

Persons holding official position in Commune . 438 

Federates, 16 or more years of age . . . 29,409 

" under 16 years of age .... 93 
Persons, not Federates, engaged in the insurrection 

(including some irregular bands of armed men) . 5,105 

Women, 16 or more years of age .... 819 

Girls, under 16 4 

Bojs, under 16, not attached to military . , 441 



There were 1,725 foreigners, which included 27 Englishmen, 17 
Americans and 81 Germans, and larger percentages of Belgians, 
Italians, Swiss, Poles and Dutch. 

Triedfor Political Offenses 9,373 

Of these there were— Men .... 9,262 

Boys .... 51 

Women ... 59 

Girls . . . 1 

Tried for Offenses against person . . . .441 

Of these there were— Men .... 393 

Boys 2 

Women ... 46 

Tried for Offenses against property .... 323 

Of these there were— Men .... 205 

Boys .... 1 

Women ... 27 



Totals 10,137 10,137 

After long detentions, averaging five months, on "no charge," 23,- 
727 were liberated. To attend to trial of remaining 12,582, two Military 
Courts were established, which number was increased to 26, and two 
Courts of Revisions ; a Court of Pardons was also put in operation in 
July, 1871; 95 prisoners were sentenced to death, and 10,137 sentenced 
to various penalties, many to transportation, many to perpetual 
hard labor, a few to simple police surveillance. There were 139 sen- 
tences annulled out of 2,962 by the court on application. The sentence 
of 72 condemned to death were commuted to imprisonment. 

It is believed that the reports of the trials, sentences, etc. as here given, 
do not represent the total of persons taken and punished otherwise than by 
immediate killing-. There are conflicting statements regarding the matter, 
and it is stated by many eminent writers that at least 15,000, and by some, 
that many more than 15,000 persons were transported. 

The mere number of sentences to transportation does not cover the real 
facts concerning the punishment of those convicted. " The cat o' nine tails, 
the irons in the ship's hold, the blows and insults of the warders, the semi- 
starvation, all the refinements of cruelty " accompanied the unfortunate 
rebels on their way to their imprisonment and exile. 

Plato wrote: "A state in which classes exist is not one but two. The poor 
constitute one state and the rich another; and both, living in the closest 
proximity, are constantly on the watch against each other. 



4232 THIS PARIS COMMUNE). 

SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 

TITLE. AUTHOR. 

Histoire de la Commune de 1871 . . ... Lissagaray 

History of the Commune of Paris in 1871 . . . Thomas March 
Rise and Fall of the Paris Commune of 1871 . . W. P. Fetridge 

A Short History of The Paris Commune . . . E. Belfort Bax 
Recollections of A Minister to France . . . EWm B. Washburne 
France in the Nineteenth Century . . . Elizabeth W. Latimer 
Political History of France . . . . . . H. C. Loc/civood 

History of the War between France and Germany . . Cassell 
Socialism ; Its Growth and Outcome . William. Morris and E. Belfort Bax 

Review of European Society . J. Sketchley 

Ca Ira . William DuGas Trammell 

French and German Socialism in Modern Times . Richard T, Ely. 
History of the Franco-German War . . . . . Von Moltke 
Evolution of France Under the Third Republic . Baron de Courbertin 

A History of France Victor Duruy 

The Government of Thiers . . . . . . . Jules Simon 

PERIODICALS. 

"The Revolution of the Commune, F.Harrison . Fortnightly Review, 1871 
The Fall of The Commune, " " " " 

The Paris Working-man and the Commune, Desnioulins " " " 

The Paris Commune, J. Andrieu . . . . " " " 

The Military Side of The Commune, Cluseret . " " 1873 

Behind the Scenes at The Commune, " ... Fraser's, 1872 

The Commune of Paris in 1871, " . . . . " 1873 

The English Working Classes and The Paris Commune, . " 1871 

Suum Cuique; the Moral of the Paris Catastrophe . . " " 

At Paris, Just Before the End, Vicar of Church of England " " 

Gustave Courbet, Artist and Communist, T. Munson Coan , Century, 1884 
What I Saw of The Paris Commune, Archibald Forbes . . " 1892 
The Commune and the International, . . Quarterly Review, 1871 

Paris and Versailles, A Young English Gentleman . McMillen's, 1871 
The Programme of The Commune, . . Littbll's Living Age, 1871 

Communal France, Edinburgh Review, 1871 

In and About Paris, Edward King . . . . Scribner's, 1872 

Last Days of The Commune, John B. Marsh . . Gentleman's, 1871 
A History of tke Commune of Paris, A Resident . . Blackwood's, 1871 

London " Times," (1871); London "News," (1871); San Francisco 
^'Argonaut;" San Francisco "Truth," (1884.) 
PAMPHLETS. 

"Address of the International Working-men's Association", 1871. "The 
Internationale; Its Principles and Purposes," (1871) by George Wilkes. 
^ <-The Commune of Paris," by Peter Krapotkin. 



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